MINSK, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) expressed on Tuesday regret over the termination of the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership between Ukraine and Russia, local media reported.
"I was sorry to hear this news about the termination of the treaty between Ukraine and Russia," said Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee Sergei Lebedev.
Lebedev said that he has read a lot of comments. Most of them agreed that the termination of the treaty with Russia will hurt Ukrainian nationals harder than it will hurt Russians.
"It is not in the interests of Russia, Ukraine or other Commonwealth member states," he added.
Lebedev also said the CIS hopes that Ukraine will stay with it. "So far, we have not received any notification on Ukraine's withdrawal from the CIS and we hope that we will not receive it," he said, adding that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has been invited to the CIS summit in Dushanbe on Sept. 28.
On Sept. 17, Poroshenko signed a decree to enforce a decision of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) on terminating the key partnership agreement with Russia signed in 1997.
Relations between Kiev and Moscow have been deteriorating since early 2014 over their different stances on the developments in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.
The CIS was founded in 1991 as a regional association of former Soviet republics. Its members include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Ukraine and Turkmenistan are associate members of the organization.
