Ukraine tears up military agreements
Parliament suspends pacts with Russia as unrest continues in eastern regions
KYIV— Ukraine’s Parliament voted to suspend military co-operation with Russia Thursday in a long-anticipated move signalling a further break in relations between the once-close partners.
Kyiv also produced what it claimed was fresh confirmation of involvement by Russian intelligence in sowing unrest in breakaway eastern regions, saying it is evidence of continued Russian plans to destabilize Ukraine.
The five co-operation agreements scrapped by the Verkhovna Rada include one giving the Russian military transit rights to reach Moldova, whose territory is partly controlled by a Moscow-supported separatist government.
Relations between Russia and Ukraine plummeted after the overthrow in February 2014 of Ukraine’s then-present, the Moscow-friendly Viktor Yanukovych. Russia subsequently annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. Kyiv also accuses Moscow of arming and staffing separatist insurgencies in eastern Ukraine.
Russia staunchly denies it is involved with the armed separatist insurgency in Ukraine.
In turning away from Russia, Ukraine has increasingly reached out for assistance to NATO, an organization the current government hopes the country will eventually join. Russia has about 1,500 troops stationed in Trans-Dniester, a landlocked separatist strip of Moldova that borders Ukraine. Rescinding the transit rights for those troops creates a logistical problem for Russia and no solution was immediately apparent.
“As it now stands, we have to think about it, find a way. We shouldn’t toss away Trans-Dniester and Moldova,” said Vladimir Komoedov, defence committee chairman in the lower house of Russian Parliament, according to the Interfax news agency.
But he said Russia wouldn’t consider retaliatory measures for the time being.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the decision by Ukraine’s Parliament isn’t expected to affect the implementation of the Minsk ceasefire agreement for eastern Ukraine.
Also Thursday, Ukraine unveiled what it said was new evidence showing that Russian foreign intelligence services have played a decisive role in provoking unrest in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.
Two Russian citizens captured there over the past week were active officers with Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate, according to Vitaliy Naida, the head of counter-intelligence for the Security Service of Ukraine.
The service published the names and pictures of 12 other people it said served in the same unit as the captured men. Naida said the unit ran sabotage operations.