OREANDA-NEWS. "Together with our western partners we should do everything possible to increase the military capabilities of Ukraine in order to ensure that the Minsk agreements to be executed by Russia", said Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk in an interview with the CNN on Thursday, February 13.

The Head of Government stressed that Ukraine needs "true and tangible guarantees of how to implement the Minsk agreements".

He reminded that in 1994, Ukraine gave up its nuclear arsenal by signing “an infamous Budapest Memorandum”, "A number of states, including Russia, provided guarantees to Ukraine to preserve its territorial integrity and independence. But Russia violated this agreement, illegally annexed Crimea, seized a part of the independent country – the Ukrainian land, thus violating the international agreements".

"What guarantees are there for Ukraine today? A signature of the Russian President or the Russian agents? It won’t give us any real guarantee. The best guarantee is to make Ukraine a stable and strong country that can defend itself", said Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

"This will include everything that improves and increases the defensive capacity of Ukraine, its economic power and makes Ukraine a strong state," he stressed.

Answering a question about the assessment of the agreements reached in Minsk, Arseniy Yatsenyuk stressed that he highly appreciated the efforts of President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, that “together they, with the support of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Fran?ois Hollande, have reached a temporary truce”, "It might enable us to pave the way to the lasting peace".

At the same time he reminded that in September of last year there had already been signed Minsk agreements, "The Ukrainian President and the Government have done everything they could to implement them. But Russia, as always, violated these agreements".

"We don't believe any words or any papers. We must believe only actions. To have talks with President Putin is always a challenge. As I see the main goal of President Putin is to destroy Ukraine and to fulfil his "sacred mission" to fight against the West", said Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

"There were only two choices - bad and even worse. I hope this option will preserve lives of Ukrainian soldiers and save lives of civilians who are under the constant shelling of the Russian-led terrorists. Just one saved life is precious," said he.

The Prime Minister stressed that Russia should "pull back its troops and heavy weapons, artillery, disarm all illegal groups": "But the key issue is whether we are able to regain control of the Ukrainian-Russian border."

"To seal the border between Ukraine and Russia is the key precondition," the Prime Minister underlined.

He has emphasized that Russia "is delaying the process": "But our goal is to return control of Donetsk and Luhansk, restore Ukrainian power in all regions, including those under the temporary control of Russian-led terrorists."

Arseniy Yatsenyuk said that the Government "would never talk to terrorists": "My Government will never consider anything that undermines sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Ukraine. This is our common position with President Poroshenko."

The Prime Minister highlighted the importance of the unity among the EU, the U.S. and Ukraine in order to "make Russia adhere to the agreements and to secure peace both in Ukraine and in Europe": "This is not just a conflict between Ukraine and Russia, it is a geopolitical conflict."

"We have to act together and speak with one voice, to put pressure on Russia. Russia is a threat not only to Ukraine. Russia is a threat to the EU, NATO member states, global order and an international law. We have to restore this order and to stop Russia, which violates international norms and principles, endeavours to redraw the boundaries established after World War II. Russia should pay the price for the illegal annexation of Crimea and invasion of the east of Ukraine," Arseniy Yatsenyuk emphasized.