KIEV, August 23 (RIA Novosti) – Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said at a meeting with Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel he was going to submit his edition of the nation’s association agreement with the European Union in September.
“In mid-September, I will pass in my capacity as the President of Ukraine an agreed edition of the association pact with the EU to Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada. I hope that by the end of September Ukraine will have submitted its instruments of ratification to the EU-Ukraine Association Council,” Poroshenko said during a high-level with the German chancellor in Kiev.
On June 27, Ukraine and the 28-member European bloc inked an association agreement that stipulated the creation of a free-trade zone, three months after the parties signed into force a package of political provisions back on March 21.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow did not object to closer ties between Kiev and Brussels, but warned that Russia would be forced to protect its economic interests against an inflow of cheap European goods via Ukraine, which is also a member of its Customs Union zone.
