NEWSBRIEFS

Compensation for TU-154 announced

MOSCOW - Aleksei Sazonov, a counselor at the Russian Embassy in Ukraine, told journalists on February 26 that the family of each person who died when a Russian TU-154 passenger plane was downed on October 4, 2001, by a Ukrainian S-200 missile over the Black Sea will receive at least $10,000 in compensation from Ukraine, RIA-Novosti reported. According to Mr. Sazonov, the agreement was reached last week when Russian Security Council Secretary Vladimir Rushailo met with Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Antonov to produce new passenger jet

KYIV - Ukraine's Antonov Design Bureau and the aircraft plant in Ulan-Ude, in the Russian Federation's Republic of Buriatia, signed an accord on February 26 on the joint production of the AN-148 passenger jet, UNIAN reported. Petro Balabuyev, Antonov's chief designer, said the plane will be a highly efficient 80-seat aircraft, with a top speed of 850 kilometers per hour and a flying range of 2,500-14,000 kilometers. The aircraft will be equipped with a new version of the D-36 engine which, according to Mr. Balabuyev, is the best in the world. (RFE/RL Newsline)

U.S. supports Kyiv's intent to join WTO

KYIV - Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Steven Pifer said in Kyiv on February 24 that the United States "enthusiastically" supports Ukraine's intention to join the World Trade Organization, Ukrainian Television reported. Mr. Pifer stressed that Washington attaches great importance to the development of close relations with Kyiv, and may consider revoking the economic sanctions against Ukraine if it strictly adheres to all the points in the recently adopted law on combating CD piracy. Mr. Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, also said that the United States does not possess any information that would confirm that Ukraine supplied arms to Afghanistan's Taliban. In January, Ukrainian lawmakers urged prosecutors to probe such allegations, which had been voiced last year in some foreign media. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv denies selling arms to Taliban

KYIV - The Defense Ministry on February 13 denied that Ukraine was involved in the illegal sale of tanks to Afghanistan's Taliban, the Associated Press reported. The ministry said in a statement that the news reports about sales of T-55 tanks to the Taliban when they ruled Afghanistan were "groundless and based on unchecked information received from dubious sources." In January, Ukrainian lawmakers urged prosecutors to investigate former Security Service of Ukraine Chief Leonid Derkach and his son Andrii, whom Germany's Der Spiegel implicated in illegal arms sales to the Taliban. Even before the Der Spiegel report was published, Ukrainian lawmakers had persuaded prosecutors to open a criminal probe into Leonid and Andrii Derkach, as well as National Security and Defense Council Chairman Yevhen Marchuk, for alleged illegal arms sales. A court in Turin on February 13 opened preliminary hearings in a case reportedly linked to the possible involvement of Ukrainian officials in illegal arms deals. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma decrees pay raise for servicemen

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma has signed a decree to increase wages for Ukrainian senior officers by 50 percent and to lower-rank servicemen by 100 percent as of January 1, 2003, Interfax reported. By virtue of another decree, President Kuchma ordered the government to submit a bill to the Parliament proposing to reduce compulsory military service in Ukraine to 12 months as of 2005. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Parties urged to halt "foul language"

KYIV - Former presidential adviser Ihor Storozhuk, the head of the Ukrainian National Television Company, advised parliamentary election candidates against "resorting to foul language, trading insults and making groundless allegations" in state-sponsored election broadcasts that the company is obliged to carry under the election law, Ukrainian Television reported. Mr. Storozhuk's appeal was followed by a program commenting on the Socialist Party's election broadcast on February 21. The broadcast featured excerpts from recordings made by former presidential security guard Mykola Melnychenko, in which a voice similar to that of President Leonid Kuchma was heard using extremely foul language and attacking his opponents. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Serpents Island part of Odesa Oblast

KYIV - Serpents Island (Zmiinyi Ostrov) in the Black Sea has officially become part of Kyliiskyi District of Odesa Oblast, Ukrainian Television reported on February 23. Kyiv and Bucharest have long been in dispute over this rocky islet and over how to divide the oil- and gas-bearing continental shelf around it. The report added that Ukraine has built and installed some "necessary facilities" on the islet, including a post office and a pay phone. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Broadcaster requests state protection

KYIV - Serhii Sholokh, the director of Kyiv-based Radio Kontynent, has said that he and his family are under threat of "physical elimination," the UNIAN news service reported on February 22, quoting from Mr. Sholokh's letter to Security Service of Ukraine Chief Volodymyr Radchenko. Mr. Sholokh said the previous day that "an unknown person who refused to identify himself called me and made threats," adding that the broadcaster and his family need to leave the country immediately. Mr. Sholokh asked the Security Service of Ukraine to take measures to protect his family. Radio Kontynent is a rebroadcaster of the BBC and Deutsche Welle, and has previously encountered difficulties with the authorities, including a temporary license revocation last year. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ministers go on election campaign leave

KYIV - Seven members of the Cabinet of Ministers who are seeking parliamentary mandates in the March 31 parliamentary elections have taken leave for the period of the election campaign, Interfax reported on February 20. They are: Vice Prime Minister Volodymyr Semynozhenko, Industrial Policy Minister Vasyl Hureyev, Agrarian Policy Minister Ivan Kyrylenko, Transportation Minister Valerii Pustovoitenko (all from the For a United Ukraine bloc); Education and Science Minister Vasyl Kremen (Social Democratic Party [United]); Environment Minister Serhii Kurykin (Party of Greens); and Emergency Situations Minister Vasyl Durdynets (who is running in a single-seat constituency in Transcarpathia). Prime Minister Anatolii Kinakh, who is on the For a United Ukraine election list, has said he will not go on leave during the campaign. (RFE/RL Newsline)

CEC annuls Raiduha bloc's registration

KYIV - The Central Election Commission on February 20 canceled the registration of the election list of the Raiduha (Rainbow) election bloc, which consists of the Ecological Party Defense, the All-Ukrainian Party of Peace and Unity, and the Party of Pensioners, Interfax reported. The Raiduha bloc is sponsored by oligarch Vadym Rabynovych. The commission announced that its decision follows last week's court ruling saying that the bloc - which was formerly called Rainbow and Green Ecologists - was created illegally. There is another environmental group, the Party of Greens of Ukraine, among the 33 blocs and parties currently running in the election. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Quadrilateral meeting focuses on security

KHARKIV - A meeting of the heads of the security councils of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Poland in Kharkiv on February 20 has reached an accord on forms and methods of cooperation between the relevant national security structures, ITAR-TASS reported, quoting Russian Security Council Secretary Vladimir Rushailo. "Poland finds it difficult to withstand flows of illegal migrants on the way to Western Europe. Ukraine finds the same problem no less important here. Russia is trying to defend its foreign economic projects. Moreover, international terrorism, which has recently significantly renewed and expanded its arsenal of means, is recognized as the main enemy for all countries," Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Yevhen Marchuk commented on the meeting to 1+1 Television. The details of the accord reached at the meeting have not been made public. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv to continue ties with Iran, Iraq

KYIV - Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Ihor Dolhov said on February 19 that Ukraine's foreign policy with regard to Iran and Iraq remains unchanged despite U.S. President George W. Bush's description of these countries and North Korea as an "axis of evil," UNIAN reported. According to Mr. Dolhov, Ukraine fully supports the European leaders' position that "no country should dictate its policy to others and act unilaterally." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine to withdraw peacekeepers

KYIV - Defense Minister Volodymyr Shkidchenko said in a telephone interview at the Kyiv-based newspaper Fakty i Kommentari on February 21 that Ukraine intends to withdraw its peacekeepers from Sierra Leone. The schedule for the withdrawal has not been set yet. Minister Shkidchenko said the United Nations has asked Ukraine to wait until May, after Sierra Leone's election. The minister said the Ukrainian peacekeepers have completed their mission, and that there is no reason to endanger their health for money. "The climate is far too bad for our servicemen: terrible humidity, an average temperature of 40 degrees Celsius, all those insects and snakes, and so on," New Channel Television quoted Minister Shkidchenko as saying. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Socialists seek to change system

KYIV - Socialist Party leader Oleksander Moroz said in an election spot on Ukrainian Television on February 21 that the main point of his party's election program is to change "the whole system of unfair government." Mr. Moroz noted that the authorities - including President Leonid Kuchma, presidential administration chief Volodymyr Lytvyn and Procurator General Mykhailo Potebenko - are afraid that "the truth about themselves" will be revealed on the secret tapes of former presidential bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko. Mr. Moroz accused the Communist Party, which placed Mr. Potebenko on its election list, of "playing the game directed by Kuchma." Mr. Melnychenko, who also appeared in the spot, said a recent U.S. expert examination confirmed that his tapes were not doctored. "Now the question is who must be held liable and when for the murder of a journalist, embezzlement, bribery, rigging the presidential election and the April [2000] referendum. The materials that I recorded in Leonid Kuchma's office contain answers to all these questions," Mr. Melnychenko said. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Colonel sentenced for spying

KYIV - Fakty i Kommentari reported on February 21 that Taras Bublyk, a former colonel in the Ukrainian army, has been sentenced to seven years in prison for spying for an undisclosed foreign agency. Mr. Bublyk's case was investigated in secret, and the court hearings were held behind closed doors except for the final announcement of the verdict. The report said Mr. Bublyk was accused of passing on secret information about the Ukrainian army as well as its armaments and equipment while he worked in an important military position in Transcarpathia after 1992. According to the daily, Mr. Bublyk was paid for his services with two used cars and money deposited in foreign banks. Mr. Bublyk denied the charges of espionage, saying his communication with a foreign agent was restricted to the agent's requests to buy cheap alcohol and cigarettes in a shop for Ukrainian servicemen. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, March 3, 2002, No. 9, Vol. LXX

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