OPR- Thursday, 10th July, 2008

On his second day of the Official visit to Ukraine,  President Eddie Fenech Adami and Minister Tonio Borg this morning met Mr Arseniy Yatseniuk, the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukranian Parliament).  The Speaker spoke of Ukraine’s place in Europe and its joining EU.  He agreed to the proposal by Minister Tonio Borg to have close collaboration between Parliamentarians from both sides through meetings.

Following the meeting, in drizzling rain The President and Mrs Fenech Adami laid a wreath and flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Square of Glory. 

The President and Mrs Fenech Adami later visited the Kiev Pecherska Lavra Monastery, an Orthodox Christian monastery, which was founded in 1015 and mostly reconstructed again recently. The Lavra has been a pre-eminent centre of the Eastern Orthodox Christianity in Eastern Europe and is one of the four UNESCO World Heritage Sites within Ukraine.

In the afternoon, the President visited the St. Sofia Cathedral, which is one of around fifty architectural monuments at Kiev National Reserve ‘Sofia Kyivska, prior to their return to Malta in late evening.