Ukraine to continue to participate in Treaty on Open Skies

“The preservation of the Treaty on Open Skies and continued participation in it meets the interests of Ukraine’s military security, as well as the country’s priorities of Euro-Atlantic integration. Aerial monitoring of military activities, as well as the exchange of information with partner states, constitute an important source of information necessary for assessing the military and military-political situation in the conditions of countering Russia's armed aggression,” reads the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine comment on the extraordinary conference of States Parties to the Treaty on Open Skies.

As noted, conducting joint observation missions with the participation of Ukrainian and foreign inspectors, as well as using the Ukrainian observation aircraft «Antonov-32» in the interest of observation missions of the NATO members is also one of the most important treks of the practical interactions and achieving of the operational compatibility between the armed forces of Ukraine and Alliance members.

As before, Ukraine insists on the fulfillment in good faith of the obligations under this Treaty by all States Parties without exception.

“We consider that the actual reasons for the US withdrawal from this Treaty were provoked by Russia's deliberate long-term actions aimed at breaking the pan-European regimes in the field of arms control and military restraint, as well as at the concealment of military preparations, of the processes of the large-scale deployment of new Russian attack weapons systems near Ukraine-Russia state border, in the temporarily occupied territories of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Luhansk and Donetsk regions,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine emphasizes.

“Ukraine calls on all States Parties to preserve and further implement the Treaty, as well as to actively oppose Moscow's attempts to manipulate its provisions in order to legalize the consequences of Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine, temporary occupation and illegal annexation of the part of Ukraine's sovereign territory,” the statement reads.

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