On 20 September 2018 President Petro Poroshenko proclaimed the Annual Address to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine “On the Internal and External Situation of Ukraine in 2018”. As the Head of State stressed that on Monday, he had signed a Decree enacting the decision of the National Security and Defense Council not to continue the Treaty on the so-called friendship with Russia. It is proposed to abolish the Constitutional provision that allows the deployment of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine and after we will return Crimea, the Russian military base in Sevastopol certainly will not be there anymore, Petro Poroshenko said.

President of Ukraine in his address stressed, that Russian aggression caught the West flatfooted and the the first reaction to the occupation of Crimea was surprisingly sluggish and toothless. At the same time, he added that the sanctions in connection with the annexation of Crimea and Russian occupation of the Donbas look milder than those subsequently implemented in response to the interference in elections or the chemical attack in Salisbury. But on the other hand, it is extremely important that sanctions against Moscow are now connected not only with Ukraine, as this means that there is an absolutely clear understanding that Russia is not only our problem. That it is a threat to the whole civilized world, said the Head of the State.

The President of Ukraine in his Annual Address said that Russia’s attack began with the attempt to annex Crimea and it must be finished with its return – Including the reimbursement of damages incurred and the provision of effective guarantees of non-recurrence of the aggression.

It was pointed out that any concession in favor of the Kremlin without restoring the territorial integrity of Ukraine is a defeat, defeat of law and freedom. This is a losing of the democratic Europe. “Do not forget that the enemy came here not for Crimea, not for the Donbas, it came for the whole Ukraine. The empire is impossible without Ukraine. So where will we draw the boundary of the so-called compromise – on the Donets, on the Dnieper, on the Zbruch?” the President asked the People’s Deputies.