You're reading: One more bill denouncing Kharkiv agreements registered at Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada

Ukrainian people's deputy Volodymyr Yavorivsky (BYT-Batkivschyna faction) has registered a bill denouncing the Kharkiv accords between Russia and Ukraine at the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament.

The official Web site of the Ukrainian parliament says that the bill denouncing the Ukrainian-Russian agreement on the presence of the Black Sea Fleet on Ukrainian territory was submitted to the Rada leadership on Friday. The text of the bill and the memo to it are absent from the Web site.

On Thursday, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine recognized as unconstitutional amendments to the regulations of the Verkhovna Rada, which said lawmakers had no right to submit to the Verkhovna Rada bills proposing the denunciation of international agreements signed by Ukraine. The court made this ruling having considered a relevant query from 47 MPs.

Reporting Judge Andriy Stryzhak said that deputies could initiate the denunciation of the Kharkiv Agreements in the regular regime ensured by the constitution and the Verkhovna Rada Regulations.

"If a deputy submits a law on the denunciation of an international agreement, say, the Kharkiv Agreements, it will be considered in the regular procedure… The [Constitutional Court] judgment says that the denunciation bill is a regular bill and it should be heard in the regular way, just like any other. In short, this bill can be submitted to the Verkhovna Rada, evaluated by committees, which, in turn, will present it to the Verkhovna Rada, the Verkhovna Rada will vote, and the president will either sign the document into law or not," Stryzhak said.

Opposition deputies have many times registered bills denouncing the Ukraine-Russia agreement on the presence of the Russian Black Sea Fleet on Ukrainian territory.

The agreement was signed in Kharkiv on April 21, 2010 and ratified by the Verkhovna Rada on April 27, 2010.

On April 21, 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych at their talks in Kharkiv agreed to prolong the term of the presence of the Russian base in Crimea by 25 years starting with 2017 when the current agreement expires. The agreement was accompanied by an understanding between Gazprom and Naftogaz Ukrainy on discounts to gas prices for Ukraine.