You're reading: Yanukovych: Deal on free trade area with CIS to be ratified after minor procedural matters

Kyiv will ratify its agreement on a free trade area with the CIS after the settlement of "minor procedural matters," Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has said.

"We have to tackle very small issues that need to be regulated and, of course, the agreement will be ratified. As soon as we address these small procedural matters raised by lawyers we will hold joint consultations and sign it," the president said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 television channel on March 18.

At the same time, Yanukovych noted that this would be the first agreement of that kind since Ukraine achieved independence in 1991.

"Frankly speaking, Russia was not eager to have such an agreement. We hold regular meetings within the CIS, and we saw that it wasn’t that simple to move Russia in this direction. Finally, the ice has been broken," the head of state said.