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Ukraine parliament ratifies Ukrainian-Russian border agreement

08 July 2010 17:20 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The Ukrainian parliament on Thursday ratified an agreement with Russia concerning border demarcation, APA reports quoting Xinhua News Agency.

The agreement, which was supported by 347 lawmakers in the 425-seat assembly, was submitted by President Viktor Yanukovych on Wednesday, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported.

Ukraine and Russia signed the border demarcation agreement during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s first official visit to Ukraine in May.

Ukraine unilaterally established a maritime border in the 1990s, saying it was based on the administrative border that existed between the two republics in the Soviet era. Russia has repeatedly denied the existence of such a border.

In the summer of 2003, a bitter dispute broke out between the two countries over Tuzla Island in the middle of the Kerch Strait. The matter came to a head when Russia tried to construct a dam on the island. Ukraine accused Russia of encroaching on its territory.

Then Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Leonid Kuchma signed an agreement on the joint use of the Azov Sea and Kerch Strait in December of that same year. Under the agreement, the sea and the strait remain the territorial waters of both Russia and Ukraine.