Ukraine should not forget that the foundations of the country's independence were built in the Soviet era, President Viktor Yanukovych said on Friday.
"We should remember that as part of the Soviet Union, despite limited sovereignty, Ukraine laid the foundations of its economic and cultural strength, without which future independence would have been impossible," Yanukovych said in his address to the nation to mark the 20th anniversary of Ukraine's Declaration of State Sovereignty.
The declaration, adopted on July 16, 1990, paved the way for the country's independence from the Soviet Union, which was declared on August 24, 1991.
