Ukraine's president-elect Viktor Yanukovich has said he may allow Russia to continue its Black Sea Fleet deployed in the port of Sevastopol even after 2017, when it is supposed to withdraw.
This is in contrast to the pro-Western stance of current President Viktor Yushchenko, who vowed that Russia would have to find other alternatives for its Black Sea Fleet once the current agreement expires.
A decision on this issue will be taken "in the near future" through discussions without affecting the national interests of Ukraine and Russia, Yanukovych told Russia's state-run 24 TV news channel in an interview Saturday.
Yanukovych won Ukraine's presidential runoff last Sunday by a narrow margin against his rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
But Tymoshenko has not accepted the outcome, and has vowed to challenge it in court.
Tymoshenko held a cabinet meeting Thursday, defying a call to abandon her protests and step down to avert a political crisis.
The 49-year-old blonde is under pressure to accept the result, which was described by international monitors as free and fair, and endorsed by the EU, US, and Russia.
Yanukovich's Party of the Regions is allied to the Kremlin's United Russia party, and the 59-year-old former mechanic has pledged to seek better relations with Moscow, as Ukraine transits Russian natural gas to other parts of Europe.
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April 10, 2026 16:21 ET Inflation data from the U.S. was the main data event this week as the conflict in the Middle East continue. The minutes of the latest Fed policy session and the survey data on the services sector also made headlines. In Europe, manufacturing orders data from Germany was in focus. Price data from China drew attention in Asia.