Ukraine parliament votes to end Russia friendship treaty

Ukraine’s parliament has approved a motion presented by President Petro Poroshenko to end the country’s Treaty of Friendship with Russia.

As many as 277 out of 450 lawmakers on Thursday voted in favor of the motion. The bill required a minimum 226 votes to pass.

The approved motion implies that Ukraine will not seek to renew the friendship treaty after it expires on March 31, 2019.

The treaty, which was signed in 1997, established a strategic partnership between the two countries.

The agreement called for Moscow and Kiev to "respect the territorial integrity of each other and confirm [the] inviolability of current mutual borders."

The pact further urged the two countries to embrace relations "based on principles of mutual respect of sovereign equality, inviolability of borders, peaceful resolution of differences, without use of force or threat to use force."

Also on Thursday, the parliament adopted another additional bill unilaterally doubling Ukraine's territorial waters to 24 nautical miles, claiming that the measure seeks to increase the navy's operational efficiency. 

Ukraine’s withdrawal from the treaty and unilateral doubling of territorial waters comes as the two countries are locked in political and territorial dispute.

Ukraine also called for further US-led NATO military presence in the region in response to the Kerch Strait incident.

On Thursday, the Pentagon announced that it had carried out an "extraordinary” observation flight "to reaffirm US commitment to Ukraine".

"Russia's unprovoked attack on Ukrainian naval vessels in the Black Sea near the Kerch Strait is a dangerous escalation in a pattern of increasingly provocative and threatening activity," said Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon commenting on the US aerial operation.

Moscow says the United States is encouraging provocation between Russia and Ukraine over the recent confrontation. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Washington should mediate between Ukraine and breakaway regions instead of defending Kiev.

Russian President Vladimir Putin charged his Ukrainian counterpart Poroshenko with orchestrating the naval “provocation” in the Black Sea to bolster his popularity ratings before next year’s election.

SS