Rybak: Ukraine needs European living standards and cooperation with its strategic partner Russia

Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Rybak has said he is confident that Ukraine and Russia will find mutual understanding and remain strategic partners.

"I think that Ukraine as a sovereign state has the right to choose its own path of development. We need European living standards, and we must do everything to cooperate with our strategic partner, Russia," he told two television channels and Interfax-Ukraine in Kyiv on Thursday, when asked by the news agency how Ukraine and Russia will develop their relations if Ukraine signs the Association Agreement with the EU and whether it will remain a strategic partner for Russia.

Rybak expressed confidence that disagreements that sometimes arise in relations between the two countries would be removed.

"I'm confident that we will find approaches in key areas, and all disagreements that arise existed earlier as well. I don't see anything dangerous here," he said.

"Today it's necessary to consider Russian-Ukrainian relations through the continuation of constant dialog and regular meetings," he said.

Rybako said that the Verkhovna Rada has an agreement with the Russian State Duma to hold a meeting between Ukrainian and Russian MPs and government officials in Dnipropetrovsk on October 31 and mutual relations in the economic sphere between the two countries.

He said that "sharp corners" in Ukrainian-Russian relations should be avoided.

"It's currently impossible to make sharp attacks in international relations, because we try to live in a friendly manner even with our roommates," Rybak said.

"There is a great state of Russia and there is a large state of Ukraine, and these are the largest states in Europe. There is the foreign policy of one state, and there is the foreign policy of the other state, and each state is considering its questions in terms of benefits for its own people," Rybak said.

He said that Ukraine in its actions wants to bring benefits to its citizens.

"I think that we will eventually find mutual understanding," Rybak said.

As reported, Russian presidential advisor Sergei Glazyev said this week that, by signing the Association Agreement with the European Union, Ukraine will stop being Russia's strategic partner and will effectively lose its status as an entity under international law.