Ukraine ready to terminate key partnership agreement with Russia

KIEV - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Tuesday that his country stands ready to terminate the key partnership agreement with Russia.

"We got prepared enough and legally protected for the next step -- the termination of the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership between Ukraine and the Russian Federation," Poroshenko was quoted as saying by his press service.

Russian authorities have not commented on the issue so far.

Signed in 1997, the Ukrainian-Russian treaty is a document which fixes the principle of strategic partnership between the two states.

Under the agreement, Kiev and Moscow pledged to respect the inviolability of each other's borders and to peacefully settle disputes.

Relations between Kiev and Moscow have been deteriorating since early 2014 over their different stances on the developments in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.

According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, between April 2014 and April 2018, the two former Soviet neighbors have either suspended or terminated 44 out of 451 treaties.