Poroshenko announces visa-free travel with Latvia and eats his words

President of Latvia Raimonds Vējonis is on an official visit to Ukraine, LETA reports. In Kiev, Vējonis said his country will never recognize Crimea’s unification with Russia and will always support Ukraine.

In honor of the guest from Riga, the Kiev streets were decorated with flags resembling Latvia’s national flag. The city was full of security officers. Vējonis’s visit started with official welcoming ceremony involving honor guard and anthems of the two countries at the Ukrainian president’s Administration in Kiev.

At the meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko, the Latvian president slammed Russia for “violating the international law.” He said the EU’s stance is exact: “it supports the independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”  Poroshenko, in turn, thanked Latvia “for active role and support to Ukraine’s European integration and exact pro-Ukraine stance when it comes to protection of our independence and territorial integrity.”

After the meeting, Poroshenko said in a tweet that Latvia announces a visa free regime for Ukraine starting January 1 2016.  He thanked Vējonis for his intention to cancel visa travels for Ukrainians. However, that tweet was removed later. Baltkom, a Riga-based radio, contacted Raimonds Janson, the spokesperson for the Latvian Foreign Minister, over the issue, who said that the presidents of Latvia and Ukraine did not touch upon the visa free travels in the course of their joint news conference in Kiev.