KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th August, 2018) The main task of the current Ukrainian generation is to finally and irreversibly break off all ties with the "Russian Empire and the Soviet Union," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Friday.
"We are breaking all the fetters that bind us to the Russian Empire and the USSR. The main task of our generation is to make this independence irreversible, to make Ukraine large and strong, without any prospect of returning to the zone of Russian influence. This is the goal of the society and the authorities it has chosen," Poroshenko said at a parade marking Ukraine's 27th Independence Day.
The Ukrainian president noted that the country should rely on its own forces and restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine in the interests of the whole of Europe.
"On the continent, everyone understands that without the independent European Ukraine, there would be less, not more peace and security in Europe. Without restoring the territorial integrity of our state, all borders in Central and Eastern Europe will be vague," Poroshenko said.
Relations between Moscow and Kiev have deteriorated amid Kiev's claims that Russia interferes in Ukrainian domestic affairs, mainly on the issue of Crimea and Russias alleged involvement in the Donbas conflict. The Russian authorities have repeatedly denied the allegations, saying that Crimea joined Russia as a result of a referendum in 2014, and the conflict in eastern Ukraine started when Kiev's troops launched a military operation against the militia of the country's eastern regions.
