President Viktor Yuschenko has said that the recognition of the Georgian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states is unacceptable to Ukraine.
Yuschenko was speaking to journalists after talks with United States Vice President Richard Cheney.
«The decision to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia is unacceptable to Ukraine,» Yuschenko said.
According to Yuschenko, the events in Georgia demonstrated that Ukraine can feel safe only by integrating into Euro-Atlantic institutions.
Yuschenko said that Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic partners should be interested in Ukraine’s NATO membership to an equal degree.
Yuschenko also expressed concern at the fact that Russia’s Black Sea naval fleet, which is based in the Crimea, was participating in conflicts with third countries, thus passively involving Ukraine in the conflicts.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, Yuschenko has called for improvement of the format for the participation of peacekeepers in the resolution of the conflict in Georgia and expressed the belief that a threat to Georgia’s territorial integrity is a threat to Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
The parliament refused on September 2 to adopt a statement on the situation in Georgia.
