Ukrainian Foreign Ministry: Kyiv, Moscow start demarcation of state border

19:16

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday received a formal notification from the Russian side that all of the procedures required for the coming into force of an agreement on the demarcation of the Ukrainian-Russian state border have been completed, the head of the ministry's information policy department, Oleh Voloshyn, has told Interfax-Ukraine.

"A joint commission on demarcation that will mark the border in the regions will soon be formed," he said.

Voloshyn noted that the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry viewed these events "as a very important step towards strengthening the sovereignty of the Ukrainian state, and a major victory of Ukrainian diplomacy."

"This question has remained open since the first days of our country's independence, and the fact that the sides managed to resolve it precisely now is evidence of the qualitatively new nature of Ukrainian-Russian relations, which is helping us move forward in the most difficult and important issues of bilateral relations," he said.

As reported, an agreement on the demarcation of the Ukrainian-Russian state border was signed by the presidents of Ukraine and Russia, Viktor Yanukovych and Dmitry Medvedev, in Kyiv on May 17, 2010. The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, ratified the document on July 8.

The law on the ratification of an agreement between Ukraine and Russia on the demarcation of the Ukrainian-Russian border was published in the government's Uriadovy Kurier newspaper on August 3.