Turning the pages back... October 4, 1993 (10/03/04)

Turning the pages back...

October 4, 1993

Eleven years ago, on October 4, 1993, President Leonid Kravchuk relieved Ukraine's defense minister, Gen. Kostyantyn Morozov, of his duties. The dismissal came at Gen. Morozov's own request, who said he did not want his army to be dragged into any "political games." Although the general was unavailable for comment, sources in the Defense Ministry reported that his decision came against the backdrop of the polarized situation in Ukraine's Parliament and the tense events in Moscow.

The Ukrainian defense minister had been attacked by Ukraine's hard-line Communists who over the past year had accused him of forming a policy too independent from Moscow. But democrats - 90 members of Ukraine's National Council - protested the president's decree dismissing Gen. Morozov and appealed to him in a letter dated October 6, 1993, to reconsider his decision. "We feel that this decision will curb the development of Ukraine's armed forces, and will evoke confusion, not only in the army, but among members of our society," said the letter.

"Morozov was one of the first, who together with President Kravchuk supported Ukraine's independence, and this is why it was immensely difficult for the president to make this decision," said Volodymyr Petrenko, chief of the president's Defense Council.

Some democrats said, however, that Gen. Morozov was forced to resign his post because he spoke out strongly against decisions reached at the Massandra summit in early September 1993, which signed away Ukraine's portion of the Black Sea Fleet and its nuclear weapons.

"For me, this announcement about Morozov's resignation was bitter news. I associate Morozov with the development of an independent Ukrainian Army. Perhaps his resignation was a result of his independent and staunch politics in Massandra, where he was about the only one who spoke on behalf of Ukraine's interests," said Vyacheslav Chornovil, a people's deputy and chairman of Rukh.

Source: "Wary of 'political games,' Morozov requests dismissal from defense post," by Marta Kolomayets, Kyiv Press Bureau, The Ukrainian Weekly, October 10, 1993, Vol. , No. 41.

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