According to UNIAN, President Victor Yanukovych underlined that the relations between Ukraine and Russia are to improve essentially at the present time. He declared this during the meeting with the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitriy Medvedev, in the framework of the official visit to Moscow.
When meeting the President of Ukraine, Dmitriy Medvedev once more congratulated him on assuming the Post of the President and wished him great success. “The relations between Ukraine and Russia will improve, because that is what our citizens wish for,” he said. The Russian President also expressed hopes for the problems in Ukrainian-Russian relations to end with Victor Yanukovych’s accession to the presidency.
In his turn, Victor Yanukovych underscored: “My aim is an about-face in relations with Russia and we will fulfill the task the Russian and Ukrainian people dream about.” He also stressed that he will meet the expectations of many Ukrainians and improve relations with the Russian federation. “And they will be completely different from what they were for the last five years,” he promised.
Besides, Victor Yanukovych mentioned that Ukraine and Russia have a great potential, which must be developed in all spheres of cooperation, economic in particular. The Head of the Ukrainian State also highlighted that he has set a goal for Ukraine to reach the level of development of social and pension security systems of Russia, which has already recovered form crisis.
The negotiations of official delegations, headed by the Ukrainian and Russian Presidents, were conducted in the Kremlin. At the mutual press conference, the leaders of both countries put an emphasis on the urgent need to revive the relations on all levels.
Dmitriy Medvedev said, referring to his Ukrainian colleague, that millions of people in Russia and Ukraine hope that the Presidents of the two countries will not hinder the development of relations. He is convinced that today’s negotiations demonstrated a great potential of the bilateral relations. “In the last years the relations between our countries were not just stagnating, they were degrading. Now we are not simply improving relations, we are reviving, reanimating them with strong remedy,” he said.
According to Victor Yanukovych, Dmitriy Medvedev will come to Kyiv in the first half of the current year for this purpose. “I hope that our Interstate commission will work out the plan of actions and we will start solving problems even before President Medvedev’s official visit to Kyiv,” the Head of Ukrainian State said.
The issues to resolve are boundary demarcation, gas relations and the stay of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation in Ukraine. Victor Yanukovych said that the people of both countries and also the partner-states wait for the agreements to be reached, as many aspects of Ukrainian-Russian relations have a great influence on the economy of Europe.
Ukrainian President mentioned that during the negotiation process agreements were reached regarding the celebration of the 65th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War on the territory of Ukraine and Russia. According to the President, celebrations will be synchronized. Besides, Victor Yanukovych said that on the eve of May 9 he will be in Moscow and on the celebration day of the 65th anniversary of the Victory – in Kyiv. “Military parades will take place in all hero-cities,” he said. President also promised to cancel decrees on conferring the titles of Hero of Ukraine to Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych.
