Ukraine's Communists get involved in negotiations on Black Sea Fleet (11/24/96)

Ukraine's Communists get involved in negotiations on Black Sea Fleet

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - With the division of the Black Sea Fleet at an impasse, although leaders of negotiations had said they were "virtually complete" a little more than a week ago, the Communist Party of Ukraine has stepped into the fray.

At a November 18 press conference, Communist Party Leader Petro Symonenko said that, thanks to efforts by Verkhovna Rada members of the party such as himself and Borys Oliynyk, leaders of the Russian lower house of Parliament, the Duma, were convinced not to go for a final vote to declare Sevastopol a Russian city.

"Due to our efforts, the matter of the Black Sea Fleet (BSF) has not come up in the Duma," he said, explaining that representatives of the party and members of the Duma had held secret talks in Kyiv in the preceding days.

He went on to state that because the executive levels of both countries had not been able to resolve the issue in recent meetings, talks should proceed at the parliamentary level.

Deputy Oliynyk added, "They sign documents, drink champagne and two days later there are confrontations. It is all useless without ratification by the Verkhovna Rada."

On November 19, Mr. Symonenko announced he will meet with a Russian Duma delegation in Moscow, which he said is tentatively slated for November 25. He also said he is pushing for a meeting on the BSF between Verkhovna Rada Chairman Oleksander Moroz and Russian Duma leader Vladimir Seleznev.

In the last month the Duma first voted in favor of financing the budget of Sevastopol, which is the home to the rusting fleet contested by Russia and Ukraine, and then on March 13 introduced a declaration that Sevastopol "always has been and will be a Russian city." The declaration has not been brought to a vote.

The actions by the Duma, as well as pronouncements by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and former National Security Council Chairman Aleksander Lebed that Sevastopol is a Russian city, have thrown into turmoil secret negotiations held between the two countries at the ministerial level.

Ukraine's Vice Prime Minister Vasyl Durdynets and his Russian counterpart, Valeriy Serov, have had a series of meetings over the last month, which had been called productive and peaceful, and led both men and Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma to call a BSF settlement imminent, with only details to be worked out.

However, since the Duma's moves, Ukraine has acted to bring world attention to what it considers Russian tinkering in its back yard.

On November 13, at a weekly press briefing, President Kuchma's chief of staff, Dmytro Tabachnyk, pointed out that if the Duma's games continue, Ukraine could ask members of the international community that have pledged to support Ukrainian independence to condemn the Russian actions. "I personally think that what is going on in the Russian Duma is political games between the political elites of our neighbors," he explained. "But I think that Russian leaders know the possible reaction of the world community."

Ukraine had signed agreements to guarantee the integrity of its borders and its sovereignty with the United States and Great Britain in 1994 in exchange for giving up its nuclear arsenal. Later France and China signed similar agreements with Ukraine.

On November 14 Verkhovna Rada members belonging to the Republican Party of Ukraine, including National Deputy Lev Lukianenko, announced they would introduce a bill that would require all "foreign armies to leave Ukrainian soil by the year 2000" should the Duma pass a resolution declaring Sevastopol Russian territory.

Republican Party leader Bohdan Yaroshynsky also questioned the response to the situation by the United States, Great Britain and France: "They have not given the appropriate guarantee for the integrity and security of the territory as they had agreed."