The Treaty of Friendship between Ukraine and Russia expired on April 1, 2019.
The document provided that Ukraine and Russia "respect each other’s territorial integrity and confirm the inviolability of the borders between them."
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 was automatically renewed on each 10th anniversary of its signing, unless one party advised the other of its intention to end the treaty.
After Russia annexed Crimea and unleashed war in Donbas in 2014, appeals have been voiced repeatedly in Ukraine to sever the Treaty.
On September 6, 2018, the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine decided not to extend the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, which is expiring on March 31, 2019.
On September 17, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed a decree enacting the NSDC's decision. On September 21, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry sent Russia a corresponding note. On September 26, Poroshenko handed the note over to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for distribution as an official document of the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council.
On December 3, 2018, the Ukrainian president submitted to the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, a bill on the termination of the Treaty (No. 0206).
On December 6, 2018, the Parliament adopted the said bill with 277 votes in support and just 20 opposing the move.
