A Government draft Law on the termination of the Agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of the russian federation on the Promotion and Mutual Protection of Investments (Agreement) will be submitted to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. The Government of Ukraine made the decision at its meeting on April 18.

"We are bringing the legal framework in line with the actual situation. The Agreement concluded more than twenty years ago provides, among other things, for the provision of protection guarantees for russian investments in Ukraine. Therefore, it is obvious that if russian funds are to be used in our country in the coming years, they will only be confiscated from the aggressor or paid voluntarily by the aggressor as compensation for the damage caused. And this is the only thing we have to guarantee to the terrorist state," said Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Minister of Economy of Ukraine, Co-Chair of the IWG on Deregulation.

The Intergovernmental Agreement on Encouragement and Mutual Protection of Investments was signed in November 1998 and ratified by the Ukrainian Parliament in December 1999. The agreement contains, among other things, clauses according to which investments of investors of the contracting parties made in the territory of the other party will not be expropriated, nationalised or subjected to measures equal in effect to expropriation. In case of nationalisation, etc. of investments in the public interest, it is envisaged that investors will be paid "prompt, adequate and effective compensation".

The agreement also provides for the unimpeded transfer of payments abroad in connection with investments. In the event of losses of investors due to war, a contracting party undertakes to provide them with treatment no less favourable than that provided to investors of any third state.

The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties provides that a fundamental change in circumstances may be grounds for termination of a treaty.

The decision will come into force after the draft law is considered and adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, signed by the President of Ukraine and published.