KIEV, Aug. 17 - Ukraine said Friday it is ready to make its missile warning system, which had been previously used by Russia, available for Western countries following Moscow’s abrogation of a long-term agreement governing its use.

The system, which includes two radar stations, in Mukacheve and in Sevastopol, was built back in the days of the former Soviet Union. Moscow has been renting both facilities since the early 1990s.

Moscow moved in February to abrogate the agreement in favor of building similar radar facilities on its own soil to avoid dependence on Kiev. President Viktor Yushchenko last week signed a decree allowing Ukraine to withdraw from the 1992 agreement.

“The withdrawal from the agreement gives Ukraine an opportunity to cooperate with European countries in order to integrate Ukrainian missile warning and space monitoring facilities with similar systems,” Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

The ministry said Ukraine may also make its radars available to “other countries that are interested in obtaining data on the situation in the space,” apparently a reference towards the U.S.

The announcement is seen as further evidence of Ukraine’s efforts to move closer to the West on security issues.

It may further strain relations between Russia and Ukraine, which seeks to join NATO within the next two years, while Moscow opposes the move citing military threat.

The development comes as tensions have been running high in the Caucuses where Russia had used 10,000 troops and hundreds of tanks to invade Georgia, following fighting in a Georgian breakaway enclave of South Ossetia.

Although Moscow has agreed to start pulling its troops out of Georgia on Monday, some western government officials have been worried that Russia may postpone the pullout to further increase the pressure on Georgia.

The Russian invasion increased fears in some western leaning countries, such as Ukraine, that Moscow will now use its strong-arm tactic to try to re-establish its control over the region.

Poland, a member of the European Union, following talks with the U.S. last week has agreed to host 10 interceptor missiles on its territory, a part of a major missile defense shield.

The Czech Republic is currently in talks with the U.S. to host a high precision radar that would work in tandem with the interceptor missiles in Poland, apparently to counter any threat of ballistic missile launch from Iran.

The two Ukrainian radars are not as powerful and precision-based as the radar to be built in the Czech Republic, suggesting the U.S. probably go ahead with its radar to be erected there.

However, the Ukrainian radars, one based in western parts of the country and the second in the southern parts in Crimea, are apparently able to provide general monitoring of space.

Russia has been paying Ukraine about $1 million annually for the information the radars have been receiving and sending to Moscow, although the payments have not been regular and Russia has been in arrears for years.

Russia has angrily reacted to the accord allowing installing interceptor missiles in Poland, with a Russian top military commander saying the facility will be “100 percent” target for Russian nuclear strike.

"When one party agrees to host [a foreign facility], of course, it assumes certain responsibilities. And we’re talking about a military facility in this case, so there is additional [responsibility]," Col-Gen. Anatoliy Nogovitsyn, a deputy chief of staff, said last week.

"Certainly, any facility is the target -- excuse me, I mean the subject of the interests of another country. So, of course, one has to be careful with that," he said.

"A bordering country always makes it its priority to strike such installations [in case of conflict]. So, it is not simple -- it cannot go unpunished from the point of view of [its] military use and so on." (tl/ez)