Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (L) shakes hands with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich (R) at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia 05 March 2010.
Ukraine’s new President, Viktor Yanukovich, has offered to extend the lease of military bases to the Russian Navy past their expiration in 2017.
Yanukovich himself made public this offer during his joint news conference on Friday with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow.
The Ukrainian President stated that soon the military bases issue will be resolved in a way which satisfies both Russia and Ukraine.
The question of whether to allow the Russian Black Sea navy to remain in its Crimean Peninsula bases after 2017 is a particularly thorny one especially as far as the prospects of Ukraine joining NATO are concerned.