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Ukraine parliament scraps 5 military agreements with Russia

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko addresses lawmakers and soldiers in the parliament in Kiev, Ukraine, May 8, 2015. (© AP)

The Ukrainian parliament has terminated a series of intergovernmental agreements on military cooperation with Russia, amid growing tensions between the two sides.

On Thursday, the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) voted to terminate five agreements between the two sides over allegations that Russia has been instigating unrest in eastern Ukraine.

The terminated agreements include one on mutual security of secret information, which was signed on December 2, 2000 in the Russian capital, Moscow, and was ratified nearly one year later by the Ukrainian parliament.

An agreement on cooperation in military reconnaissance was also denounced by Ukrainian lawmakers. The deal had been signed in August 1997 in Ukraine and later ratified by the parliament in February 2002.

Kiev also scrapped an agreement with Moscow, signed in 1995 and ratified in 2002, on organizing military logistics.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko banned any military-technical cooperation with Russia last June.

Ties between Moscow and Kiev became strained in February 2014, when former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted.

In mid-April 2014, Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in the east were hit by deadly clashes between pro-Russia forces and the Ukrainian army after Kiev launched military operations to crush the pro-Russians in the region. Thousands of people have lost their lives in the unrest.

The government in Kiev and its Western allies have been accusing Moscow of supporting pro-Russia forces in eastern Ukraine. Russia denies the allegation.

The unrest continues despite the signing of a truce deal, known as Minsk II, at a summit attended by the leaders of Russia, France, and Germany in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk in February.

SZH/HJL/GHN


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