Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in 2014-2019 Pavel Klimkin stated that he was not involved in the Kharkov agreements and even warned about the consequences of such agreements. He announced this in the program Radio Liberty “Saturday interview”.
“I had nothing to do with the Kharkov agreements. In principle, no relationship. Incidentally, I remember very well how then I talked with former minister Grishchenko and said that this could in fact radically complicate any process of European integration and any advance to the West. But he was determined to balance and say that at some point a balance needs to be determined. But according to the Kharkiv agreements, let those who were involved in this answer, ”Klimkin commented.
Klimkin also told Radio Svoboda that at the time of the signing of the Kharkiv agreements, he was responsible for only two areas – relations with the EU and the United States.
“Firstly, I was the director of the EU department. And then I was deputy minister. And I was responsible only for two areas – for the EU and for relations with the United States. Also more international organizations. And he was also the head of our delegation at the negotiations on the association of Ukraine with the EU, ”explained the ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
November 26, during the press marathon, the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelenskycommenting on the involvement of the NSDC Deputy Secretary Ruslana Demchenko to the Kharkiv agreements, announced the name Pavel Klimkin.
This November “Schemes” published evidence that Ruslan Demchenko in 2010 lobbied for the so-called Kharkov agreements, according to which Ukraine extended the stay of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea and the circumstances of the preparation and ratification of which are now being checked by the SBU for high treason. The journalists found in the archives of the Verkhovna Rada a transcript of a closed meeting of the parliamentary security committee for April 26, 2010, whose members were determined whether to recommend to the deputies to ratify the Kharkiv agreements.
Ruslan Demchenko, then Deputy Foreign Minister, came from the Foreign Ministry to the meeting. According to the transcript, the investigation said, Demchenko urged the deputies to support the consideration of the bill on the ratification of the agreement in the session hall. One of the arguments put forward by Demchenko at the time was the high price of Russian gas for Ukraine. At the same meeting, according to the transcript, he promoted the thesis that the Kharkov agreements and the Russian fleet in Crimea are stability for Ukraine.
Earlier, the Foreign Ministry stated that Demchenko “was not involved in the preparation” of the agreements, and the NSDC Secretary Danilov argued that if he “participated, then he should also be held accountable.”
In 2021, the NSDC instructed the SBU to analyze the circumstances of the preparation and ratification of the Kharkiv agreements. According to the NSDC Secretary Alexey DanilovThis decision of the Verkhovna Rada later became one of the reasons for the Russian annexation of Crimea and influenced the outbreak of hostilities in Donbass in 2014.
The SBU reported that they had started a pre-trial investigation “into the fact of committing high treason.” Criminal proceedings were opened against government officials. According to preliminary data from the SBU, the signing of the agreements led to an increase in the number of personnel of military formations and special services of the Russian Federation, subsequently involved in the annexation of Crimea.
Ruslan Demchenko worked as Deputy Foreign Minister from 2010 to 2014. In September 2014 he was appointed advisor to the president Petro Poroshenko, in July 2019 – an adviser to Vladimir Zelensky, and since June 2020 – First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council.
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