The President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko noted that Ukraine and Russia should have equal and pragmatic relations. He said that in an interview to “Independent” newspaper, ForUm’s correspondent informs.
“I want Russians not to treat actions of the Ukrainian power as anti-Russian ones. We develop our state, respecting independence and sovereignty of other countries. So we demand the same attitude from our neighbours: it is time to forget about ambitions of mother country and offences of colony, their place is in history,” Yushchenko said.
According to him, taking into consideration this understanding, we need to develop new relations – equal and pragmatic.
At the same time the President noted that he imitated several time a meeting with Dmitriy Medvedev, but the issue is not solved yet.
Answering the question whether Russia influences the situation in Ukraine, Yushchenko said that Russia is a big state which influenced and will influence the policy in region.
Speaking about the winter conflict in the gas sphere, V. Yushchenko noted that "the gas war" was lost by Ukraine and Russia. But it is also important that the European Union, as a result of Ukrainian-Russian gas agreements signed in January, failed to get assured that "the conflict is settled and will not ever repeat."
