OREANDA-NEWS President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed a decree on termination of Friendship Treaty, cooperation and partnership between Ukraine and Russia. Earlier, the decision was prepared by the National Security and Defense Council

The document was published on the official website of the President of Ukraine.

"To put into effect the decision of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of September 6, 2018 "on the Treaty of friendship, cooperation and partnership between Ukraine and the Russian Federation", — the document says.

Attached to the Treaty is the decision of the national security Council, which instructs the Ministry of Foreign Affairs "to declare the Russian Federation's desire to terminate the Treaty of Friendship, cooperation and partnership between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, signed on May 31, 1997, in accordance with article 40 of this Treaty."

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry should also prepare and submit to the President a draft law on the termination of the Treaty, as well as inform the UN, OSCE and other international organizations about Ukraine's desire to break the Treaty of friendship with Russia.

Earlier in August, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin said that his office has already prepared a package of documents on the termination of the Friendship Treaty with Russia. "This has always been our position. We will submit it formally in the coming days. I have always said that Russia has violated everything that is possible in this Treaty," Klimkin said at the time.

The Treaty of Friendship, cooperation and partnership between the Russian Federation and Ukraine (the so — called Great Treaty) was signed by Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Leonid Kuchma in 1997, ratified by the Verkhovna Rada in 1998, and by the state Duma in 1999. The first term of the contract expired on 1 April 2009. However, since no party had indicated a desire to withdraw from it before 1 October 2008, it was automatically extended for a further 10 years.

For the termination of a large contract, it is necessary that one of the parties declared its unwillingness to extend it until October 1, 2018.

Article 40 of the Treaty states, that it is concluded for a period of ten years. "It will then be automatically extended for subsequent ten-year periods unless one of the High Contracting Parties declares to the other high Contracting Party its desire to terminate it by written notification at least six months before the expiry of the next ten — year period," the article says.

In January 2018, the proposal to consider the denunciation of a large Treaty did not gain the necessary number of votes in the Verkhovna Rada. Ukrainian politicians then explained the reluctance to break the Treaty by saying that it recognizes each other's borders.