NEWSBRIEFS

Ukraine's leaders remember Chornobyl

KYIV - President Viktor Yushchenko, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko participated in commemorative events on April 26 on the occasion of the 19th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear accident. The leaders laid flowers at the monument honoring fallen liquidators of the accident. Also present were other ministers, Kyiv Mayor Oleksander Omelchenko, national deputies and representatives of Ukraine's armed forces, as well as veterans of the Chornobyl clean-up effort. (Ukrinform)

Police disperse Miensk demonstration

MIENSK - Riot police dispersed a demonstration staged by several hundred Belarusian opposition activists as well as youth movement activists from Russia and Ukraine in downtown Miensk on April 26, the 19th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reported. The demonstrators wanted to hand a petition to the Belarusian presidential administration requesting that the authorities report on what they are doing to solve Chornobyl-related problems and that they stop producing food in areas contaminated by radiation. According to an official report, police arrested five Ukrainians, 14 Russians and 13 Belarusians during the rally. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Lukashenka says West failed to help

MIENSK - President Alyaksandr Lukashenka told journalists on April 26 in the Vetka Raion of the Homiel Oblast, an area seriously contaminated by fallout from the 1986 Chornobyl accident, that Belarus has always dealt with post-Chornobyl problems on its own, RFE/RL's Belarus Service and Belapan reported. "The opposition was insisting that the West would help us, but the West helped no one. We knew that we would not get humanitarian aid, just like Russia and Ukraine," Mr. Lukashenka said. He added that the few people from abroad who offered help in health care and other areas were rewarded by the Belarusian government. "They [the West] promised then to give us money when the Chornobyl power plant is shut down. They have given us nothing so far. We rejected old rags and clothes, we do not need them," the president noted. "There is not a single clinic or hospital in Belarus that has not received humanitarian aid from abroad," Henadz Hrushavy, head of the For Children of Chornobyl humanitarian fund, commented to RFE/RL. "It is simply dishonest to hurl such an invective - we don't need your old rags and clothes - on behalf of the Belarusian people at all those who have helped Belarusians." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Russian activists recall Chornobyl

MOSCOW - On the 19th anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster in Ukraine Russian environmentalists held protests in various cities, such as Moscow, Kaliningrad and Voronezh against Russia's policy of secrecy regarding the disposal of nuclear waste, RFE/RL's Yekaterinburg bureau reported. Activists from the environmental organization Ekozashchita have submitted inquiries to 14 branches of the Emergency Situations Ministry asking for information on the ministry's plans for evacuating the population in case of a radioactive accident. Ministry officials in six of the 14 cities said the information was classified. In an interview with RFE/RL's Moscow bureau, Lidiya Popova, director of the Center for Nuclear Ecology and Energy Policy, said that although a law on defending the population against radiation requires that enterprises that could be locales for a radiation accident are to keep local officials informed, such companies are not doing so. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Yushchenko lists 100 days' successes...

KYIV - President Viktor Yushchenko said at a local-government forum in Kyiv on April 26 that his government has managed to bring to fruition a majority of his election promises during its first 100 days, which elapse on May 3, Ukrainian media reported. Mr. Yushchenko said that, since his inauguration, freedom of speech and independent media have begun to become a reality in Ukraine. Second, the president claimed that the state budget has been "oriented toward the people," adding that 70 percent of the budget is being "consumed by the poorest part of the population." Third, Mr. Yushchenko noted that the first group of Ukrainian peacekeepers returned from Iraq in March, and the others will return before the end of the year. He added that the term of military service was cut to 18 months in the naval forces and 12 months in the land forces, also in accordance with an election pledge. The president also said Ukraine during the first 100 days of his government has signed accords on 2 billion euros' ($2.6 billion) worth of investment credits, adding that "this is more than during the past five years taken together." (RFE/RL Newsline)

... pledges to effect political reform

KYIV - President Viktor Yushchenko said at a local-government forum in Kyiv on April 26 that he will stick to the constitutional reform passed by the Verkhovna Rada in December 2004 in a package with other bills in order to resolve the election deadlock at that time, Interfax reported. Mr. Yushchenko was commenting on a recent statement by Socialist Party Chairman Oleksander Moroz, Mr. Yushchenko's coalition partner in the government, who said that it would be inadmissible to cancel the constitutional reform. "Don't worry, Oleksander Oleksandrovych [Moroz]," Mr. Yushchenko said. "The [relevant bills] have been passed and signed, so if Bill No. 3207-1 is not adopted now, Bill No. 4180 will take effect not on September 1 but on January 1, 2006." Under the December 8 package of agreements, the power shift in Ukraine - from the president toward the prime minister and the Parliament - will occur on September 1 if the Verkhovna Rada approves a bill on local self-government (No. 3207) in the second reading prior to that date, or, failing such passage, the political reform (Bill No. 4180) will automatically go into effect on January 1, 2006. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Former PM sees economic decline

KYIV - Party of the Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych, who was prime minister in 2002-2004, said at a meeting with European Union ambassadors in Kyiv on April 26 that the Yushchenko administration is sacrificing the country's economic development for temporary social benefit, Interfax reported. According to Mr. Yanukovych, the government's policies will lead to the curtailment of investment programs and a slowdown of economic growth. Mr. Yanukovych noted that the new government has failed to maintain the pace of economic development achieved in 2004, adding that "practically all macroeconomic indicators" have worsened. Mr. Yanukovych claimed that Ukrainians now have to pay three times more for food and other necessities than in 2004, while an inflation jump "has devoured the pension and wage increases that were thoughtlessly introduced by the new authorities." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Banker comments on hryvnia revaluation

KYIV - National Bank of Ukraine Chairman Volodymyr Stelmakh told journalists on April 27 that last week's strengthening of the national currency, the hryvnia, against the U.S. dollar has benefited the poorest segments of Ukrainian society, Interfax reported. "The poor people gained from the hryvnia strengthening, since they do not have dollars, nor do they suffer from psychological dilemmas [connected with the hryvnia revaluation]; second, they have preserved the purchasing power of their pensions, stipends and the like," Mr. Stelmakh said. He also commented on benefits of the hryvnia's new exchange rate for richer Ukrainians. "Ukrainians have not lost anything," Mr. Stelmakh asserted. "Simply, they will now have to pay 505 hrv for $100, not 530 hrv [as before]. Their trips to Europe will be less expensive. Where do you use the U.S. dollar on the domestic market?" On April 21 the Ukrainian National Bank set the hryvnia's exchange rate against the U.S. dollar at 5.05 hrv, compared with 5.25 hrv a day earlier. The president of the Association of Ukrainian Banks, Oleksander Suhoniako, said on April 25 that depositors of Ukrainian banks who saved their money in U.S. dollars lost 1.2 billion hrv as a result of this revaluation. (RFE/RL Newsline)

President reinstates EU, NATO goals

KYIV - President Viktor Yushchenko issued a decree last week reintroducing the declarations in Ukraine's military doctrine about the country's need to prepare for full-fledged membership in NATO and the European Union, Interfax reported on April 25. The declarations were removed from the military doctrine by former President Leonid Kuchma in July 2004. In its current wording, the doctrine states that Ukraine needs to pursue a "policy of Euro-Atlantic integration with the final goal of joining NATO." In another amended passage, the document states, "Proceeding from the fact that NATO and the EU are guarantors of security and stability in Europe, Ukraine is preparing for full-fledged membership in these organizations." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Lists released of officials called to testify

KYIV - The Ukrainian Internal Affairs Ministry on April 25 published a new list of former and current officials who are to be summoned this week to testify in ongoing criminal investigations, ITAR-TASS reported. This new practice of making public lists of witnesses questioned in criminal probes was reportedly introduced by the Internal Affairs Ministry a month ago. The new list includes, among others, three lawmakers - Nestor Shufrych, Anatolii Kukoba and Valerii Horbatov, as well as former Odesa Mayor Ruslan Bodelan and former Mykolaiv Oblast Chairman Oleksii Harkusha. Mr. Shufrych, who is a lawmaker from the opposition Social Democratic Party-United caucus, commented that such "public invitations to an interrogation" are a "farce and clownery," Interfax reported. (RFE/RL Newsline)

A plebiscite on political reform?

KYIV - Ukrainian political scientist Vadym Karasiov told Deutsche Welle on April 26 that President Viktor Yushchenko's administration is planning to hold a referendum in order to "change the essence" of the constitutional reform passed by the Verkhovna Rada in December 2004 as a political compromise intended to break the then election-campaign impasse. In particular, the constitutional amendments, which are to take effect no later than January 1, 2006, limit significantly the president's powers in favor of the prime minister and the Parliament. Objections to introducing the political reform in its current form have recently been voiced by Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Vice Prime Minister Anatolii Kinakh and State Secretary Oleksander Zinchenko, who heads the Presidential Secretariat. "There is a need for a national referendum on some issues [of the constitutional reform]," Mr. Zinchenko told a forum of political scientists in Kyiv on April 15, according to the Ukrainska Pravda website. "The president should possess factors [leverage] that are provided for by the non-amended version of the Constitution." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Security to be tightened at border

CHISINAU - Ukrainian Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk pledged that Kyiv will strengthen controls on the Transdniester section of its border with Moldova, Infotag reported on April 26. "This is a border after all, not a 'black hole,' and, therefore, it should be treated as such," Mr. Tarasyuk said at the GUUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova) summit in Chisinau. "We don't want our national boundaries to be open to smugglers. As of recently, Kyiv has taken certain measures to establish order in this section of the national border; these measures are far-reaching," he added. Tightening border security was one of the key points in a blueprint for Transdniester peace presented by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko at the summit. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv presents Transdniester peace plan

CHISINAU - Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko has presented a peace plan for Moldova's breakaway Transdniester region, calling for a larger role for the United States and the European Union, Infotag reported on April 22. Mr. Yushchenko's proposal, presented at the GUUAM summit meeting in Chisinau, calls for parliamentary elections in Transdniester that are monitored by Russia, the United States, the EU and the Council of Europe. Mr. Yushchenko also said that an international force under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe should replace Russian troops in the region. Additionally, he called for the United States and the EU to become engaged in the negotiating process, for international monitors at Transdniester's military sites, and for OSCE observers to monitor the territory's borders. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Yushchenko sees GUUAM in new role

CHISINAU - President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine proposed in Chisinau that GUUAM become a full-fledged regional organization with a headquarters and other necessary structures, Infotag reported on April 22. "The philosophy of this organization should be based on three pillars: democracy, economic development and security. We all adhere to the principles of European and Euro-Atlantic integration, and should unite efforts to attain these goals," Mr. Yushchenko said. Some observers view GUUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova) as a potential challenger to the Moscow-dominated Commonwealth of Independent States. Mr. Yushchenko also repeated his suggestion to create a GUUAM free-trade zone, which he said would create the conditions for greater stability and security in the region. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine abstains from CIS accord

BREST, Belarus - Ten Commonwealth of Independent States internal affairs ministers met in Brest, southwestern Belarus, on April 21 and signed a joint plan to fight organized crime, terrorism and illicit drug trafficking under an interstate program for 2005 through 2007, Belapan reported. Ukrainian Internal Affairs Minister Yurii Lutsenko did not sign the document, saying he needs to discuss it with his country's government. Mr. Lutsenko's spokeswoman, Inna Kisel, told the newspaper Ukrainska Pravda on April 22 that Ukraine will limit its role in the CIS Council of Internal Affairs Ministers to that of an observer. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Government puts caps on gas prices

KYIV - Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said at a meeting with oblast chairman and business executives in Kyiv on April 22 that prices for gasoline in Ukraine will be stabilized at a level below 3 hrv ($0.6) per liter, as established by the Ministry of the Economy earlier this week, the Ukrainska Pravda website reported. "The artificially created [fuel] crisis will end within two-three days," Ms. Tymoshenko pledged. She said the Russian oil companies Lukoil and TNK-BP "have planned to bring all consumers in Ukraine to their knees" but added that this problem "will be solved with them today or tomorrow." The Economy Ministry said in a statement on April 21 that it will guarantee the property rights of Russian oil companies for Ukraine's biggest refineries only if they agree to cut retail fuel prices. Earlier that week TNK-BP, Lukoil and Alliance group wrote a letter to Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, asking him to intervene in the dispute and saying they are concerned by threats from Ukrainian officials to revise privatization deals. The companies are unwilling to cut prices at their gasoline station networks in Ukraine, saying higher world crude prices are behind the increases. (RFE/RL Newsline)

PM says fuel crisis is nearly over

KYIV - Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko told journalists in Kyiv on April 23 that Ukraine's fuel crisis is coming to an end, with the overwhelming majority of gasoline stations cutting prices to the level set by the Ministry of the Economy and oil traders resuming deliveries of cut-price diesel to farmers, Interfax reported. Ms. Tymoshenko thanked the heads of Ukrainian oil companies who joined a government team to fight the crisis, as well as Fuel and Energy Minister Ivan Plachkov and Prime Minister of Tatarstan Rustam Minikhanov. Ms. Tymoshenko added that the Russian oil companies TNK-BP and Lukoil also became part of the anti-crisis team. According to Interfax, Lukoil Chairman Vagit Alekperov agreed to cut retail fuel prices at the company's gasoline stations in Ukraine following a meeting with Ukraine's prime minister in Kyiv on April 22. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Labor Ukraine elects new leader

KYIV - A congress of the Labor Ukraine Party in Kyiv on April 23 elected 38-year-old lawmaker Valerii Konovaliuk from Donetsk as the party's new chairman, Interfax reported. The party's previous leader, Serhii Tyhypko, who was manager of former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's presidential campaign in 2004, resigned his post at the congress. Last week Mr. Konovaliuk left the parliamentary caucus of the Party of the Regions led by Mr. Yanukovych. The newspaper Ukraina Moloda on April 22 described Mr. Konovaliuk as a "young, vigorous and charismatic" politician who is likely to challenge Mr. Yanukovych's current leadership of the opposition against the government of President Viktor Yushchenko in the 2006 parliamentary-election campaign. (RFE/RL Newsline)

UOC-MP says it should unite Ukrainians

MOSCOW - Only the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) has the right to unite Ukrainian Orthodoxy around itself, and the Churches of Ukraine should solve their problems themselves, without the interference of others, including the Patriarchate of Constantinople, according to Patriarch Aleksei II, head of the Russian Orthodox Church. He was responding to questions posed by journalists about the status of the canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Sedmitza.ru posted the news on March 28. "We are aware that now is far from the best period in the history of canonical Orthodoxy in Ukraine," said the patriarch. "We value the support that rational forces are giving to the canonical Orthodox Church. An appeal to the patriarch of Constantinople could bring a new schism into the Church life of Ukraine, not stabilize it, and, on the contrary, complicate the situation in which Ukrainian Orthodoxy now finds itself. The Churches which are today on the territory of Ukraine should themselves solve their own problems, without outside influences. Because any interference will only complicate the situation and lead to new additions that will disastrously affect the Ukrainian Orthodox people," said Patriarch Aleksei. (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

Orthodox organizations react to statement

KYIV - Four Orthodox organizations have sharply criticized a statement by Archbishop Vsevolod (Majdanski) of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. which said the Constantinople Patriarchate does not recognize the subordination of the Kyivan Metropolitanate to the Moscow Patriarchate since 1686, and they called the patriarch of Constantinople to refute the statement immediately. In an open letter to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople made public on March 30, the authors of the letter also said that Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko was "lost" and called him a "schismatic." The letter was issued in the name of the Union of Orthodox Citizens of Ukraine, the civic movement For Holy Rus and the Orthodox Faith, the Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods of Ukraine and the Brotherhood of the Faithful Duke St. Alexander Nevsky. The letter addressed to Patriarch Bartholomew says, among other things: "The faithful children of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) were deeply troubled by the conduct of your bishops during their official visit to Ukraine. The statement Archbishop Vsevolod (Majdanski) made during the reception with President Yushchenko is unprecedented and outrageous. The lack of any reaction to the outrage your clerics have provoked in our Church is even more insolent. Instead of refuting the offending statement at once, you have assumed a waiting position. Does this lack of reaction from the part of Your Holiness mean complete solidarity with the points of Archbishop Vsevolod's scandalous statement?" The authors called upon Patriarch Bartholomew "to punish the violators of Church canons, Archbishops Vsevolod and Antony." (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

SDPU alleges government interference

KYIV - The Social Democratic Party - United has called the country's government to stop interfering in Church affairs. This was the content of a statement by Viktor Medvedchuk, head of the party. In his statement, Mr. Medvedchuk evaluated the March 24 statement by Archbishop Vsevolod (Majdanski) of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. and a representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, who questioned whether Ukraine belongs to the canonical territory of the Moscow Patriarchate. "There is no question that the new Ukrainian government, by starting a new wave of contacts with the Ecumenical Patriarchate, intends to incline it to interfere with inter-Church relations in Ukraine and to impose a unification of Churches and autocephalous status for Ukraine. This is exactly what the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate had warned President Yushchenko about in early March," Mr. Medvedchuk's statement said. According to Mr. Medvedchuk, "if events develop according to this scenario, it will lead to governmental pressure on the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, to violation of the rights of its faithful and to a rise in the level of interdenominational conflicts. Moreover, these conflicts can outgrow the boundaries of one country and lead to a schism in the entire Orthodox world, with Ukraine becoming an arena for the struggle between the Moscow and the Ecumenical patriarchates." He added, "We strongly condemn the state's interference in Church affairs, which can lead to serious interdenominational conflicts." (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, May 1, 2005, No. 18, Vol. LXXIII

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