Ukraine’s political and trade association agreement with the European Union will be ratified by the beginning of July, President Petro Poroshenko announced on June 25 in an interview to Ukrainian TV channels.
The Ukrainian leader stated that all political decisions regarding the ratification have been taken and that, at a Ukraine-E.U. Summit to be held in Kyiv on July 12-13, the country will be able to “celebrate the completion of the ratification process.”
Poroshenko said the agreement, designed to foster closer political and economic ties, is expected to come fully into force from Sept. 1.
The treaty’s current status as provisional can be maintained indefinitely but without full ratification, work between individual EU member states and Ukraine in areas such as defense and judicial cooperation, taxation and migration will be on hold.
Parts of the agreement already operational include a free-trade zone between Ukraine and the EU and visa-free travel for Ukrainians to Europe’s borderless Schengen zone.
U.S. defensive weapons
In the interview, Poroshenko also said that, following his meeting with President Donald J. Trump at the White House last week, U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis will visit Ukraine in the fall. Poroshenko expressed hope that agreement could be reached on providing Ukraine with defensive weapons.
The U.S. refused to take such a step under the administration of ex-U.S. President Barack Obama in spite of appeals from Ukraine since its Crimean peninsula was annexed by Russia in March 2014 and the Kremlin-instigated war in Ukraine’s Donbas in April 2014. The war has claimed at least 10,000 lives.
“At the meeting with the secretary of defense, which was confirmed at the White House, we will try to resolve the issue of the supply of defensive weapons from the U.S. to Ukraine within the current fiscal year, which, as you know, lasts until October,” Poroshenko said.
Military support to Ukraine from the U.S. has until now come in the form of deliveries of non-lethal equipment and American instructors conducting training drills in western Ukraine.
Washington has not been directly involved in the main efforts to resolve the conflict, which have come via the Normandy Format talks among Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France.
The talks have yielded little progress, but fresh efforts are now being made following the election in France of President Emmanuel Macron. The 39-year-old leader has said that he does not exclude the possibility of tougher economic sanctions against Russia if it does not end its war in the Donbas.
A phone call among the leaders of the Normandy Format nations is scheduled for next week, ahead of a G20 Summit in Hamburg on July 8-9.
Poroshenko’s office has confirmed that he will meet Macron in Paris on June 26.
Besides Macron, Poroshenko will meet French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe and Senate President Gérard Larcher.
