UJ.com

Top 2 

                        THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2024
Make Homepage /  Add Bookmark
Front Page
Nation
Business
Search
Subscription
Advertising
About us
Copyright
Contact
 

   Username:
   Password:


Registration

 
GISMETEO.RU
UJ Week
Top 1   

    
Nation    

President orders defense capability check
Journal Staff Report

KIEV, Sept. 10 – President Viktor Yushchenko ordered the inspection of Ukraine’s defense capabilities minutes after Russia had approved legislation allowing the use of force overseas for protection of its military bases and holders of Russian passports.

Many in Ukraine, which harbors a major Russian naval base in Sevastopol, fear that Moscow’s increasingly assertive foreign policy may eventually lead to a military clash between the two.

The Yushchenko office on Thursday denied speculation the order to inspect the defense capabilities and army facilities had anything to do with Russia’s new legislation.

But at least one official complained that Russia – despite Ukraine’s diplomatic inquiries a month ago - has yet not explained how its new legislation may affect Ukraine.

“This is not a coincidence,” Viktor Nebozhenko, a Kiev-based political analyst, told Deutsche Welle radio, linking the Russian legislation and the Yushchenko order.

The developments underscore rapidly worsening relations between Ukraine and Russia as Moscow seeks to reestablish its influence on former Soviet countries, while Kiev has been seeking to have closer ties with the West.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in a letter last month accused his Ukrainian counterpart of running “anti-Russian” policy, while Yushchenko said he was “disappointed” by the “unfriendly” tone of the letter.

The tensions come at a sensitive time as Ukraine is preparing for the next presidential election due January 17, 2010, and the vote will define the country’s foreign policy during the next five years.

Meanwhile, Nebozhenko said that inspecting Ukraine’s defense capabilities and army units is not the best response to the Russia legislation. He said the move may be viewed in the Yushchenko office as an opportunity to boost his rating ahead of the election.

But Petro Shatkovskiy, Yushchenko’s top security and military advisor, in comments posted on Thursday denied any link between the order and the legislation.

He said the army inspections had been planned back in January and have been only scheduled on Wednesday by Yushchenko’s special decree.

The decree is aimed at inspecting Ukraine’s “territorial defense” capabilities and will cover a range of facilities and army units between September 15 and September 30.

The findings of the inspections will be classified and will not be available to the media, people familiar with the situation said.

Stepan Havrysh, a deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Yushchenko’s top security body, said the council will shortly meet to address the issue.

“Taking into account the fact that Ukraine is in the zone of Russia’s direct interests, we have to hold discussions over the defense policy right now,” Havrysh said.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry has been seeking inquiry since early August about details of the Russian new legislation, but Russia had failed to respond.

The focus of the inquiry is how the legislation would affect Ukraine as tens of thousands of people in Crimea, the country’s autonomous region, are thought to have Russian and Ukrainian citizenships.

The developments come a year after Russia sent tens of thousands of troops and tanks into Georgia, a small pro-Western country in the Caucuses and a Ukrainian ally.

The five-day incursion ended with a de-facto annexation of Georgia’s two breakaway territories, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, a move that had been condemned by most countries in the world.

Many analysts said that Russia’s increasing assertiveness has become a threat for Ukraine, in particular to Crimea, an autonomous region in which two thirds of its 1.5 million population are ethnic Russians. (tl/ez)




Log in

Print article E-mail article


Currencies (in hryvnias)
  22.03.2024 prev
USD 38.92 39.14
RUR 0.424 0.422
EUR 42.47 42.44

Stock Market
  21.03.2024 prev
PFTS 507.0 507.0
source: PFTS

OTHER NEWS

Ukrainian Journal   
Front PageNationBusinessEditorialFeatureAdvertisingSubscriptionAdvertisingSearchAbout usCopyrightContact
Copyright 2005 Ukrainian Journal. All rights reserved
Programmed by TAC webstudio