The Verkhovna Rada Committee on Foreign Affairs has come out in support of a bill "On the Denunciation of the Agreement between Ukraine and Russia on the Deployment of the Russian Black Sea Fleet on the Ukrainian Territory," the Our Ukraine-People's Self Defense faction, which proposed the bill, said in a statement posted on its Web site on Thursday.
The statement calls on every deputy who cares for the national interests to vote for the denunciation of the "occupationist Kharkiv accords".
Opposition representatives dominate the foreign affairs committee chaired by Oleh Bilorus, a member of the BYT-Batkivschyna faction.
On April 21, 2010, Russian and Ukrainian Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Viktor Yanukovych, meeting in Kharkiv, agreed to extend the lease for the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s presence in Crimea for 25 years starting from 2017 when the current lease agreement expires.
The move followed a deal between Russia’s Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftogaz about a 30% gas price discount for Ukraine.
The agreement was ratified by the Verkhovna Rada on April 27, 2010, amid deep-running tensions.
