Cutting the last ties: Ukraine terminates 116 CIS agreements

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has announced that on 25 March, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the termination of 116 international treaties previously signed with the governments of Russia and Belarus and within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

Source: Sybiha on Facebook

Details: At the initiative of the Foreign Ministry, the government ended 25 agreements, denounced 3 and withdrew from 88 international treaties. Of the total number of terminated documents, 5 concerned Russia, 23 Belarus and 87 were concluded within the CIS framework. One trilateral agreement between Ukraine, Russia and Belarus was also terminated.

Sybiha said that Ukraine's treaty-based legal framework must reflect the realities of war and the new security architecture on the European continent.

Quote: "This is my firm position as a minister – to get rid of everything that could weaken Ukraine, to cut off all ties that once connected us with the aggressor state and to build a serious, strategic and long-term defence line for the free world on Ukraine's eastern border or better still, even further beyond it."

Background:

• Ukraine ended its participation in the CIS's statutory bodies in 2018 but formally remained a party to several intergovernmental agreements. Since then, the government and parliament have gradually denounced these treaties.
• On 25 February, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed decrees withdrawing Ukraine from over 30 international CIS agreements, including the creation of a joint air defence system, treaties on the return of cultural and historical assets and agreements restricting missile defence systems and eliminating medium- and short-range missiles.
• In addition, 14 draft laws have currently been registered in the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) to terminate another 74 international treaties with Russia, Belarus and within the CIS framework.

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