UKRAINE, GEORGIA LEAN ON WEST AGAINST RUSSIA

Tbilisi, Georgia - The presidents of Ukraine and Georgia on Tuesday agreed to work together to further their ambitions to join NATO and the European Union, in defiance of threats from former master Russia.

Both of the ex-Soviet states have been torn apart by conflicts with Moscow-backed separatists as they seek to wriggle out from under the Kremlin’s thumb and shift towards the West.

“We agreed to demand jointly and even more actively Georgia’s and Ukraine’s integration in the European and Euro-Atlantic space,” Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili said.

“[The two countries’] independence and democracy face the very same threats,” said Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko in Tbilisi, adding that they ‘will coordinate steps’ in their quest for EU and NATO membership.

Both Kiev and Tbilisi have made joining US-led military bloc NATO and the European Union key long-term objectives.