President assures European Union leaders of decisiveness to reform Ukraine on

President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree suspending Russia’s free-trade agreement with Ukraine as of January 1st.

Last month, Moscow offered Kiev a debt-restructuring plan, under which Ukraine could repay its arrears in three instalments of 1 billion dollars each within the next three years.

In the letter to top European Union officials, Lithuania’s Linas Linkevicius and his Polish counterpart Witold Waszczykowski added that deeper economic ties with Russian Federation hinged on a set of conditions related to Ukraine.

Russia has staunchly opposed the EU-Ukraine free trade pact, saying it could lead to a flood of European imports across its own borders and damage the competitiveness of Russian exports to Ukraine.

“Unfortunately, no legally binding agreement has been reached with Russia” during the talks, said Peskov.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko emphasized the decisiveness of Ukraine to implement reforms that bring the country closer to the EU.

Poroshenko also said that earlier in the day, Putin acknowledged for the first time that the Russian military is present in Ukraine.

“But we are ready to pay this price for our freedom and our European choice”, he told reporters in Brussels, flanked by EU president Donald Tusk and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker.

Two men, who say they are Russian military officers, have been on trial in Ukraine since September, after being captured in the east of the former Soviet nation and charged with terrorism.