Russian and Ukrainian parliaments ratified on Tuesday a deal extending the lease on a Russian naval base in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol for 25 years.
Russian and Ukrainian parliaments ratified on Tuesday a deal extending the lease on a Russian naval base in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol for 25 years. After the current lease expires on May 28, 2017 it may be further extended by five years. Photo: Kerch destroyer of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in the naval base in Sevastopol.
On April 15, 1994 the then Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Leonid Kuchma, signed an agreement on the gradual settlement of the Black Sea Fleet issue. According to the deal, the Ukrainian and Russian Navy were due to have separate bases. Photo: St. Vladimir Cathedral’s viewed from Karantinnaya bay in Sevastopol.
Under the terms of the agreements, Russia received a 20-year lease of the main Sevastopolskaya Bay, with space for over 30 warships and the Karantinnaya Bay with a missile boat squadron. The lease also comprised Yuzhnaya Bay and Kazachya Bay for the deployment of a marine brigade.
Ukrainian and Russian warships are both base in the strategically important Streletskaya Bay.
Russia also received a major stockpile of weapons and the Black Sea Fleet’s missile base.
Russia is allowed to have not over 25,000 personnel, 132 armored vehicles, and 22 aircraft in the base.
On April 21, 2010 following bilateral talks, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Ukrainian counterpart, Viktor Yanukovych signed a deal extending the lease on a Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in the Ukrainian Crimea after 2017.
The deal extends the lease on a Russian naval base in the Ukrainian port for 25 years. It can be further extended by five years if both sides agree to prolong the deal.
Viktor Yanukovych’s predecessor, Viktor Yushchenko, criticized the new government for "trading sovereignty for gas." Photo: The servicemen of Smetliviy Russia’s Black Sea Fleet destroyer in Ukrainian naval base in Sevastopol.
