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Russia and Ukraine will simultaneously ratify a CIS free trade agreement and will reach an agreement on the Russian Black Sea Fleet's presence in Crimea in the near future, Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov has said.

"The governments of the two countries, the executive branches, the lawmaking bodies, and diplomatic bodies are preparing to simultaneously ratify this document now. We are inclined to think that this might happen within the next several weeks," the ambassador said at a meeting of Russian diplomats on their professional holiday in Kyiv on Friday.

Apart from basic agreements on the Black Sea Fleet’s presence in Crimea, the two countries are actively working on agreements on a number of other issues related to the fleet’s modernization, the procedure of informing Ukrainian authorities of movement of Russian military units around Ukraine, and the use of the Black Sea Fleet’s navigation infrastructure, he said.

"We can declare now that the level of readiness of a number of documents is quite high, and it is quite possible that we could approach the signing of the necessary documents in the near future," Zurabov said.

Russia expects that the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada and other institutions will soon make a decision on ratifying an agreement simplifying the border crossing procedures between the two states.

The demarcation of the land border between Russia and Ukraine is nearing completion, Zurabov said. All documents have been drawn up properly, and the field work has begun, he said.

"We can talk about significant progress in the delimitation of the Russian-Ukrainian marine border," Zurabov said. Russia also hopes that agreements on this will be reached in the near future, he said.