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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's September 17 decree enacting a September 6 decision by the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) not to extend the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership between Ukraine and Russia was published in the government's official newspaper Uriadovy Kurier on Wednesday, September 19.

The decree was published in Issue No. 175 (6291).

According to the document, the decision comes into force from the date of its publication.

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Read alsoPoroshenko to notify Russia of termination of friendship agreement by Sept 30

As UNIAN reported earlier, Poroshenko on September 17 signed a decree to enact the NSDC's decision not to prolong the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership between Ukraine and the Russian Federation.

Under Article 24 of the Law on International Treaties of Ukraine, the president will also submit a relevant bill to parliament.

Ukrainian presidential representative in parliament Iryna Lutsenko said Ukraine's Foreign Ministry would send a letter to the Russian side by September 30 to notify of the non-extension of the Treaty, which is expiring on March 31, 2019.

UNIAN memo. The Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership between Ukraine and the Russian Federation was signed by the then Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and his Russian counterpart Boris Yeltsin on May 31, 1997. The document fixed the principle of strategic partnership, the recognition of the inviolability of existing borders, respect for territorial integrity and mutual commitment not to use its territory to harm the security of each other. It automatically renews on each 10th anniversary of its signing, unless one party advises the other of its intention to end the treaty. After Russia annexed Crimea and unleashed war in Donbas in 2014, there have been repeat appeals in Ukraine to sever the treaty.