Ukraine not to withdraw troops from Iraq: spokesman
PLA Daily 2004-03-18
KIEV, March 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Ukraine will not pull out its troops from Iraq, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Markiyan Lubkivsky said Tuesday.
"The question of either withdrawing our troops or reducing our presence in Iraq is not on the agenda," Lubkivsky told a news conference.
Spain's Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Monday that his country might withdraw its 1,300 troops from Iraq before June 30 after suspected al-Qaida attacks in Madrid killed 200 people last week.
Ukrainian parliamentary deputies from the Communist and Socialist parties urged the government to follow suit.
"I would not be telling the truth if I said I was happy that our Ukrainian troops are now in Iraq ... I am very worried," Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich told the lawmakers.
Ukraine sent some 1,660 soldiers to Iraq's southern province of Wasit in August as part of a 9,000-strong Polish-led multinational force.
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