NEWSBRIEFS (03/17/96)

NEWSBRIEFS

Fire damages Ukrainian TV, radio studios

KYIV - A fire destroyed three floors of Ukrainian State Television and Radio's main broadcasting facility on March 10, international and Ukrainian agencies reported. The cause of the blaze remains undetermined. Management said the fire caused damage totaling millions of dollars and destroyed the company's main TV and radio studios. Broadcasts resumed the next day from reserve studios. The government has set up a special committee to investigate the cause of the fire, which Prime Minister Yevhen Marchuk had ascribed to "subjective factors," a euphemism for negligence. (OMRI Daily Digest/Reuters)

Radiation leak at Chornobyl revealed

KYIV - The Ministry of the Environment has revealed details of a serious radiation leak that occurred on November 17, 1995, inside the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, international and Ukrainian agencies reported on March 10. The incident, which registered three on the international scale of one to six, took place when a nuclear fuel rod split open while Reactor No. 1 was being refueled. The reactor hall was reportedly contaminated. Details of just how serious the incident was emerged only last week after the ministry received a new report from nuclear specialists, Ukrainian officials said. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Romanians against treaty with Ukraine

BUCHAREST - Nine cultural and other organizations sent an open letter on March 11 to Romanian President Ion Iliescu, Prime Minister Nicolae Vacaroiu, Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu and the Parliament demanding that Romania not sign a friendship and cooperation treaty with Ukraine, Radio Bucharest reported the following day. The signatories said the treaty should not be approved unless territories incorporated into the Soviet Union after World War II and now belonging to Ukraine are given back to Romania. Among the organizations that signed the letter was Vatra Romaneasca (Romanian Cradle), whose political arm, the Party of Romanian National Unity, is a member of the ruling coalition. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Ukraine to build planes in Iran

KYIV - The Cabinet of Ministers on March 12 issued a resolution setting out the development of the aircraft-building industry to the year 2000. Present priorities call for the development and mass production of a new generation of airplanes: the AN-70 military transport; AN-70T civilian version; the medium-range passenger jet Tu-334 and the local service AN-140. According to confidential sources, the AN-140 will be mass-produced in Iran. The production run is expected to bring tens of millions of dollars to the Antonov Design Bureau and Ukraine's government. No official confirmation of this is yet available, however. (Respublika)

Proposed Kaliningrad link worries Poles

WARSAW - Russian President Boris Yeltsin's plan to build a highway and railroad linking the enclave of Kaliningrad with Belarus via Poland is causing considerable unease among Poles. The Polish government says neither Moscow nor Miensk has so far consulted Warsaw about the project. Gazeta Wyborcza quoted the Kaliningrad mayor on March 11 as denying that no one from the oblast has held talks with the Polish authorities. He said the Kaliningrad population is against such "extraterritorial" transport links. After Lithuania drastically raised its transit charges last year, Russia has been using alternative routes for trains and goods bound for Belarus. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Eight dead in Donbas coalmine fire

KYIV - Fire raced through a mine in the Donbas area on March 11, killing eight miners in the latest of a long series of accidents in the coalfields of eastern Ukraine. Ivan Savchenko, chief technical inspector in Donetske, said the fire broke out in equipment about 3,000 feet underground in the Skhidna Sukhodolska mine, about 12 miles from the Russian border. Eight bodies had been recovered while several other miners received burns. A total of 61 miners have died since the beginning of the year in Ukraine, about the same rate of deaths as last year, when accidents cost 339 lives. Last month, Ukraine's miners suspended a two-week strike after the government began to provide some of their wages unpaid for months. But trade union leaders say discontent remains rife in the loss-making coalfield and some miners had still not been paid their back wages. (Reuters)

Christopher to visit Ukraine

KYIV - U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher is to visit here on March 19, to discuss both bilateral issues and regional security problems, including NATO expansion, said Foreign Ministry Spokesman Yuriy Sergeyev on March 12. Also on the agenda are the Balkans and nuclear disarmament issues. (Respublika)

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