Presidents of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine mark World War II victory in Belgorod (05/07/00)

Presidents of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine mark World War II victory in Belgorod

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - While Ukraine celebrated a three-day holiday after the Easter weekend, which included two days off for May Day, President Leonid Kuchma flew off to Belgorod, Russia, for a one-day meeting with the presidents of Belarus and Russia in a display of Slavic unity on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.

The commemorations included a memorial service during which the three leaders jointly rang a bell symbolizing their spiritual unity and the unveiling of a monument to those who fell during the Battle of Kursk - which some Russian historians consider the defining battle of World War II.

It was a meeting in which the varying aims of the three leaders stood in contrast, muted by affirmations of cooperation and friendship.

Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenko took the opportunity to once again tout the need to form a great Slavic state and reunite the three countries - declarations that President Vladimir Putin fell just short of making. The Russian president merely implied that the three independent states are part of one larger nation.

"We met our enemies together and achieved victory together," said Mr. Putin, according to the Associated Press. "We have a common fate, common culture and religion. We are one family."

President Kuchma was far more restrained in giving any such endorsement and called only for the need for closer and more open relations. He said that in today's uncertain and changing world the three countries must continue to seek mutual support and cooperation.

Mr. Lukashenka, the Belarusian strong man, has long called for a reunion of the three countries, which were the core of the Soviet Union and have not done very well individually since they went their separate ways with the USSR's fall in 1991. He has led his own country back into formal union with Russia, but Moscow has not pursued the new partnership with vigor because it would involve absorbing the stagnant Belarusian economy, which would only further harm its own already moribund one.

The strong-armed tactics used by Mr. Lukashenka in redoing the Belarusian Constitution and stomping out opposition in his country, as well as his continued insistence that Ukraine join in the union with Moscow has led to a chill in relations between Miensk and Kyiv.

Although it is not certain what President Kuchma hoped to achieve in a symbolic display of unity with his fellow Slavic leaders, one political analyst cited by the Associated Press said that it was a symbolic act aimed at World War II veterans in Ukraine who have showed little support for their president.

"It was a bow to [World War II] veterans and that is why Kuchma agreed to do it," said Yevgeny Volk, director of the Heritage Foundations's Moscow office. "But symbolic acts will not affect Ukraine's foreign policy.

What Mr. Kuchma did accent in his address before his two fellow presidents and invited guests is that the moment should be used as a catalyst for the development of equal and open economic and political relations.

"Here is what I believe we owe those who fought and died here," said Mr. Kuchma. "Less politics and more specific action; we should not look for what separates us, but rather for common ground and to take more steps to meet each other halfway. We need to think less about temporary, momentary benefits and more about the future and the prospects that will determine the destiny of our peoples."

The meeting of the leaders was largely symbolic, with only a short private discussion among them at the Belgorod airport after they arrived. They were there mainly to begin celebrations of the the 55th anniversary of the fall of Nazi Berlin and the end of World War II, which occurred on May 9, 1945. For Ukrainians it is a Soviet holiday "Victory over Fascism Day," that continues to be celebrated nine years after the Soviet empires demise and this year will again include a government decreed two-day vacation for the populace.

The event took place at a chapel in a field outside Belgorod (once known as Bilhorod), near the village of Prokhorovka. In July 1943 it was the site of the largest tank battles of World War II, where 1,200 Red Army and German armored clad vehicles engaged in combat. The Red Army's victory broke the Kursk Line and the spine of the German army, whose defeat at Stalingrad months before finally had stopped its unrelenting forward advance.

The region and the city were once considered a part of the Slobozhanschyna region of Ukraine. Today the territory ethnically is largely Russian.

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