UKRAINIAN ENVIRONMENT MINISTER ON CHORNOBYL. Yuri Kostenko told journalists in London yesterday that his country is meeting all its obligations for the closure of the Chornobyl nuclear facility, the 1986 site of the world's worst nuclear accident. Referring to a 1995 memorandum between Ukraine and the G-7 nations calling for Chornobyl's closure by 2000 and financial help totaling $2.3 billion, he said that if the terms for closing the station were to change, Kiev might reconsider its plans. Kostenko said Kiev disagreed with an international panel's findings that plans to complete two other nuclear reactors in Ukraine--Khmelnitsky 2 and Rovno 4--are uneconomic. He said it is wrong to think that the current low energy demand in Ukraine means no extra energy sources will be needed after Chornobyl's closure. Western money is earmarked to help build the two new plants.
RUSSIA, UKRAINE TO GUARANTEE CHISINAU-TIRASPOL MEMORANDUM?. Russian Foreign Minister Yevgenii Primakov told journalists in Chisinau on 11 April that Russia and Ukraine will be "guarantors" of the memorandum on settling the conflict with Moldova's breakaway Transdniester region. He added that Moscow will respect the accord signed with Chisinau on the withdrawal of Russian troops and that it is not considering an increase in the troops stationed in the Transdniester. Tiraspol's demand to bring Russian "peace-keeping forces" to the region is "not timely," he commented. BASA-press reports that the article recently added to the memorandum (see RFE/RL Newsline, 11 April 1997) stipulates that the two sides will develop relations "within the common state, within the borders of January 1990."
RATIFICATION OF CFE "FLANK LIMITATIONS" AGREEMENT UNDER THREAT. Ukraine, Moldova, and Azerbaijan intend to block ratification of the May 1996 agreement allowing Russia to temporarily exceed limitations on the armaments it can deploy on its north- and south-western borders under the 1990 CFE Treaty, AFP reported yesterday, quoting unnamed diplomats in Vienna. The three countries argue that the 1996 agreement gives Russia carte blanche to deploy troops on their territories as well as in Kazakstan, Armenia, and Georgia. Georgia has expressed its support for that argument. One Armenian commentator recently wrote in Nezavisimaya gazeta that Azerbaijan has violated the so-called CFE "flank limitations" by deploying in Nakhichevan more than 500 East German tanks supplied by Turkey.
ISRAEL' S SHARANSKY MEETS WITH UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT. Israeli Trade Minister Natan Sharansky says Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has assured him that Kyiv will not help Russia build a nuclear reactor in Iran. Sharansky told reporters in the Ukrainian capital yesterday that Israel has received "clear assurances" that Ukraine will not supply Moscow with any parts needed to build the nuclear power plant near the Iranian city of Bushehr, which Russia is helping Tehran construct. Sharansky also said Ukraine agreed that it will never supply Iraq, Iran, or Libya with parts needed to build nuclear weapons. Today, Sharansky, a former Soviet political prisoner and native of Ukraine, is due to meet with members of the Ukrainian Jewish community and visit Babi Yar, site of the Nazi massacre of some 34,000 Jews in 1941.
SHARANSKY VISITS BABI YAR. Natan Sharansky, Israeli trade minister and former Soviet political prisoner, paid an emotional visit yesterday to Babi Yar, where an estimated 34,000 Jews from Kyiv were killed by the Nazis in September 1941. Later, tens of thousands of Jews and non-Jews were also executed at the ravine. Sharansky said he was visiting the memorial site for the first time and found it a very difficult experience. Sharansky was persecuted for his fight to allow Jews in the Soviet Union to emigrate to Israel. He returned to Ukraine on 13 April for the first time since he left in the 1960s to attend university in Moscow.
SHARANSKY VISITS BABI YAR. Natan Sharansky, Israeli trade minister and former Soviet political prisoner, paid an emotional visit yesterday to Babi Yar, where an estimated 34,000 Jews from Kyiv were killed by the Nazis in September 1941. Later, tens of thousands of Jews and non-Jews were also executed at the ravine. Sharansky said he was visiting the memorial site for the first time and found it a very difficult experience. Sharansky was persecuted for his fight to allow Jews in the Soviet Union to emigrate to Israel. He returned to Ukraine on 13 April for the first time since he left in the 1960s to attend university in Moscow.