Russia to consider ways to return Ukrainian debt - Peskov

MOSCOW, March 21 (Itar-Tass) - Russia will consider possible ways to return Ukraine’s debt, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday. Peskov told journalists that Russia agreed in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkov in 2010 to pay for the stay of its Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine from 2017, but started payments earlier. “There’s a double amount there, now there is no legal base for the existence of the Kharkov agreement,” he said. Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is based in the Crimean port of Sevastopol. Sevastopol, which has a special status, as well as the Republic of Crimea held a referendum on March 16, in which it decided to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. Crimea and Moscow signed the agreement on Crimea’s accession to Russia on March 18.