NEWSBRIEFS (06/30/96)

NEWSBRIEFS

Disastrous harvest predicted for Ukraine

KYIV - The land known as the "Breadbasket of Europe" and producer of a quarter of the former Soviet Union's grain, faces a disastrous harvest this year, Ukrainian and Western agriculture experts said on June 25. "This will be the worst year in the last 17 years," a Western official said at a two-day international grain seminar. The official predicted a harvest of about 28 million metric tons, down from official forecasts of a mediocre 36 million tons, and blamed a drought in the first part of the year. Last year's harvest stood at 36.5 million metric tons. "It was 50-odd million in 1990 and this is half the level," he said. "This is quite serious." Five years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine's farming system remains highly collectivized and grossly inefficient. Shortages of fuel, equipment, spare parts and storage cause huge losses and waste. Ukrainian grain exports so far this year have totaled 690,000 metric tons generating $75 million in state revenues. Government officials predict more than 1 million tons in grain exports for the year. (Reuters)

Ukraine rejects union with Russia

KYIV - A top Ukrainian official gently rejected on June 26 an appeal by Russian President Boris Yeltsin to forge a new union and suggested the proposal was part of the Kremlin leader's re-election campaign. "Ukraine is satisfied with its current membership in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which in itself is sort of a union," Dmytro Tabachnyk, President Leonid Kuchma's chief of staff, told a news conference. "This has emerged during the Russian election campaign and we fully understand that." Mr. Yeltsin proposed creating a close-knit union with Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan in an annual report on national security to the Russian Parliament made public on June 25. He said such a plan was contingent on the "good will" of Ukraine, which has opposed any form of political integration within the CIS since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan signed an accord aimed at closer union with Russia earlier this year. (Reuters)

Shushkevich judged sane

MIENSK - Russian Duma Deputy and professor of psychology Galina Starovoytova said Belarusian deputy Stanislau Shushkevich is mentally healthy, NTV reported on June 24. Her statement was in response to a demand made by Uladzimir Zamyatalin, chief ideologue of Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, that Mr. Shushkevich undergo a psychiatric examination because of his criticism of the Lukashenka regime's dictatorial policies. According to Ms. Starovoytova, Mr. Shushkevich's "intellect is considerably more highly developed than the average CIS level." In other news, Reuters reported on June 25 that liberal politicians have denounced the beating of the wife of an RFE/RL correspondent. The woman was attacked by unknown assailants in her home. The attackers threatened her husband, who works for RFE/RL and Belarusskaya Delovaya Gazeta, an independent weekly newspaper banned by the Lukashenka government. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Chornobyl 1 to close in November

KYIV - The management of the Chornobyl power plant announced plans on June 24 to shut down the station's oldest reactor, No. 1, on November 30, Western agencies reported. Plant officials said they will dismantle the reactor over the next five or six years. That will leave only one reactor, No. 3, in operation, as the No. 4 reactor was destroyed in the April 1986 explosion and No. 2 was closed down after a 1991 fire. A plant spokesman said the shutdown was part of Ukraine's promise to phase out the entire station by the year 2000, in exchange for $2.3 billion in Western aid. Ukrainian officials complained the previous week that the U.S. and other G-7 governments have yet to provide any of the promised funds to close Chornobyl and build new reactors elsewhere to replace the lost energy. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Armed forces in crisis, survey says

KYIV - Only 4 percent of officers feel the Ukrainian armed forces can perform their main duties, while 57 percent are convinced they are unable to defend the state, Zerkalo Nedeli reported in its June 15-21 issue. An opinion poll of 1,003 officers found that 74 percent felt there had been no real reform of the army, only an "uncontrolled" reduction, and 70 percent said the uncontrolled sale of military equipment was one of the army's most serious problems. The most common preference in security policy among the officers was maintaining Ukraine's non-aligned status (41 percent). About 12 percent favored a NATO orientation, while 8 percent leaned toward the Tashkent Collective Security Pact, and 37 percent said they were not opposed to setting up a Russian-Ukrainian-Belarusian security bloc. Only a quarter were satisfied with their service, and a third said they would not choose to be officers again. (OMRI Daily Digest)

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