The CIS has ignored the statements of Kiev on the withdrawal from the Commonwealth
The Commonwealth of independent States will continue to invite Ukraine to meetings and events. About it the newspaper “Izvestia” said the CIS Executive Secretary Sergey Lebedev.
“We will continue to do so, since Ukraine is currently a member of the Commonwealth. We have heard many times such statements on the country’s withdrawal from the Commonwealth, however, the official documents on the matter from Kiev in the CIS Executive Committee did not arrive”, — he explained.
19 may the President of Ukraine announced the recall of representatives from the statutory bodies of the CIS. “We have nothing more to do — we are moving together to Europe”, — said Petro Poroshenko. He instructed the Cabinet of Ministers to start the procedure for official withdrawal of Ukraine from the founding bodies of the CIS and “finally close” the Ukrainian representation in the relevant institutions in Minsk.
In April Poroshenko stated that “Ukraine was never a member of the CIS, and given the failure of this structure to condemn Russian aggression”, he asked together with the government to prepare proposals for the formal cessation of Kiev’s participation in the statutory bodies of the organization. At the same time the Ukrainian President has announced a bill on unilateral cancellation of certain provisions of the Treaty of friendship, cooperation and partnership with Russia of 1997.
The Commonwealth of independent States created in December 1991. The agreement was signed by the heads of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. In the CIS later joined other former Soviet republics, except the Baltic States. Ukraine has not signed the CIS Charter, therefore, although considered a member of an organization, legally a member of it was not.