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JAILED UKRAINIANS APPEAL TO BELARUSIAN SUPREME COURT... The Supreme Court of Belarus has accepted complaints by five Ukrainian citizens who are serving jail sentences in Minsk (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 4 May 2005), Belapan reported on 4 May, quoting Leonid Yasinskyy, spokesman for the Ukrainian Embassy in Belarus. "The Supreme Court may consider the complaints within 10 days. It is likely that all the jailed Ukrainian citizens will have been released by the time the court hands down its judgment, but we should go through with it, as this is a matter of principle," Yasinskyy said. The Ukrainians were arrested during an antipresidential demonstration in Minsk on 26 April, along with 10 Belarusians and 14 Russians. The Russians were granted early release by the Minsk City Court on 30 April; the same court on 3 May dismissed an appeal for early release of the Ukrainians. JM

...AS UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT SCOLDS MINSK FOR 'DOUBLE STANDARDS.' President Viktor Yushchenko, who is vacationing in Crimea, told journalists in Simferopol on 4 May that he is going to discuss the arrest of five Ukrainians in Minsk last month with his Belarusian counterpart, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, during their meeting in Moscow on 8 May, Belarusian and Ukrainian news agencies reported. "I wouldn't want the incident to give rise to some typical differences of opinion in our relations with the brotherly Belarusian people, but the fact of applying double standards to peaceful demonstrators -- citizens of Ukraine, of Russia, and of other states -- testifies to the Belarusian leadership's particular approach to this episode," Yushchenko said. The National Alliance youth organization on 4 May put up dummy antitank hedgehogs in front of the Belarusian Embassy in Kyiv and twisted barbed wire around them, in protest against the arrest of their colleagues in Minsk. JM

UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT WANTS BORDER COMPROMISE WITH RUSSIA... President Viktor Yushchenko said in Simferopol on 4 May that he has proposed to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, that they settle all problems regarding the delimitation of the Ukrainian-Russian border by the end of this year, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reported. According to Yushchenko, Moscow must recognize the Soviet-era administrative border separating the Ukrainian SSR and the Russian SFSR in the Kerch Strait as the new state border between independent Ukraine and Russia. "We are ready to compromise on the border line across the Azov Sea in exchange for a clear-cut position from Russia regarding the border in the Kerch Strait," Yushchenko said. JM

...URGES RUSSIA TO MEET OBLIGATIONS UNDER BLACK SEA FLEET ACCORD... President Yushchenko also said in Simferopol on 4 May that the deployment of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol until 2017 is regulated by a "big agreement" between Ukraine and Russia, and that his government does not intend to review this accord, Interfax reported. At the same time, Yushchenko noted that Russia has not yet met some commitments laid out by the "big agreement." "Until today, Russia has not transferred the navigation-system infrastructure in the Crimean Peninsula to the Ukrainian side," Yushchenko said, adding that this concerns 170 navigation-system facilities. JM

...AND PRESENTS AWARD TO TURKMEN PRESIDENT'S FATHER. President Yushchenko has posthumously awarded Atamurat Niyazov, the father of Turkmen President Saparmurad Niyazov, with the Yaroslav the Wise Order of the Fifth Degree to mark the coming 60th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, Ukrainian media reported on 4 May. Atamurat Niyazov was a veteran of World War II and has been declared a hero of Turkmenistan. "Ukraine honors the combat services of Atamurat Niyazov, whose immortal image personifies the heroism of the 740,000 Turkmen heroes who sacrificed their lives on the battlefields of the Great Patriotic War," Naftohaz Ukrayiny head Oleksiy Ivchenko reportedly said while presenting the award to the Turkmen president on Yushchenko's behalf. JM

KYIV PUTS FORMER OFFICIAL ON INTERNATIONAL WANTED LIST. Following a court ruling, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry has put Ihor Bakay, former head of the presidential property-management department, on Interpol's wanted list, Ukrainian media reported on 4 May. Simultaneously, ministry officials appealed to their Russian colleagues for help in discovering the whereabouts of former Central Election Commission head Serhiy Kivalov, former Interior Minister Mykola Bilokin, former Sumy Oblast Governor Volodymyr Shcherban, and former Odesa Mayor Ruslan Bodelan, against all of whom Ukrainian prosecutors have launched criminal proceedings. JM

UKRAINIAN COMMUNISTS DON'T WANT NATIONALIST VETERANS IN V-DAY PARADE. The Communist Party of Ukraine has decided to set up a "headquarters to counteract the mockery of the heroism and memory of our grandfathers and fathers" in protest against plans to invite veterans of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists-Ukrainian Insurgent Army (OUN-UPA) to a march in Kyiv on 9 May to mark the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 17 March 2005), Interfax reported. The Communists are threatening to use "the most radical measures" to prevent "traitors of the Ukrainian people from stepping onto the festive Khreshchatyk," Kyiv's main boulevard, where veterans are to march on 9 May. The nationalist OUN-UPA fought for Ukraine's independence against Nazi Germany, the Soviet Army, and Polish anti-Nazi guerillas during World War II. JM