Turning the pages back...

January 24, 1993

On January 24, 1993, the front page of The Ukrainian Weekly reported that Ukraine's President Leonid Kravchuk had reaffirmed his position on the CIS Charter, i.e., that the independence of Ukraine is paramount.

Mr. Kravchuk underlined that, in accordance with a resolution of Parliament, his principal task as president is "to strengthen the legal foundations of his independent state as an object of international law and not to allow the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to be transformed into some kind of state entity with its own organs of power and authority."

That is why, he said at a press conference after returning from a January 15, 1993, summit meeting in Moscow with Russian President Boris Yeltsin, the proposed CIS Charter "does not satisfy the needs of Ukraine and, from a legislative point of view, it cannot be signed." This, he emphasized "is our position - expressed concisely and clearly."

President Kravchuk told reporters that, "as a result of the haste with which certain leaders of CIS member-states act on certain political questions concerning the CIS, the Ukrainian populace has become divided into distinct groups," based on their opinions of the proposed Commonwealth Charter. He said he considered both those who demand immediate ratification of the CIS Charter (for example, members of the former Communist Party of Ukraine), and those who demand Ukraine's immediate withdrawal from the CIS to be extremists.

Source: "Kravchuk reaffirms position on CIS Charter," by Borys Klymenko, The Ukrainian Weekly, January 24, 1993, Vol. LXI, No. 4.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 18, 2004, No. 3, Vol. LXXII

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