Lavrov told how Russia respects inviolability of Ukraine's borders. Without taking into account the stolen Crimea

The Russian MFA has stated that Russia "respects the territorial integrity of Ukraine" within the borders after the annexation of Crimea. This was stated at a press conference on the results of Russian diplomacy in 2017 on Monday by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, - TASS reports.

"We continue to respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine within the borders that were formed after the referendum in Crimea and after the reunification of Crimea with the Russian Federation", - he said.

As previously reported, State Duma deputy Konstantin Zatulin (United Russia) proposed to denounce the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership between Russia and Ukraine in regard to the recognition of the countries' borders. The deputy believes that the Treaty is "unilaterally beneficial" to Ukraine. "Because without stipulating the mechanisms of partnership, cooperation and friendship, we recognize the territorial borders of Ukraine in Article 2 of the Treaty, and they are respectively ours — at the time of signing and ratification of the document. That is, when signing the Treaty in 1997 and ratifying it in 1999, Russia confirmed it considered Crimea and Sevastopol part of Ukrainian territory", - Zatulin noted.

The Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership between Russia and Ukraine is a fundamental document of Russian-Ukrainian relations. It presupposes a strategic partnership between the two countries, "based on the principles of mutual respect, sovereign equality, territorial integrity, inviolability of borders, peaceful settlement of disputes, non-use of force or threat of force, including economic and other means of pressure".