KYIV. Aug 18 (Interfax-AVN) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has invited the Russian leadership to urgently start negotiating an agreement on the possibility of using the Russian Black Sea Fleet for military purposes.
"I have sent an urgent proposal to the Russian president through official channels on starting a negotiating process and drafting a relevant agreement that would settle our relations in case of the emergence of military actions, similar to those we witnessed in early August, and the ways of protecting Ukraine's national interests in this case," Yushchenko said in a commentary regarding Kyiv's position on the situation in Georgia, the plan for settling the conflict in South Ossetia, and the Russian Black Sea Fleet based in Ukraine, posted on the presidential website on Friday.