Ukraine's Kuchma on Revision of Nuclear-Free Status
Moscow Interfax 1247 GMT 26 Mar 99
[FBIS Transcribed Text] Kiev, 26 Mar (Interfax-Ukraine) -- Ukrainian
President Leonid Kuchma has said he opposes the parliament's instruction
to the government to prepare drafts on denouncing Ukraine's nuclear-free
status. "Some politicians, primarily in parliament, either do not
understand or do not want to understand the processes under way in the
world, in Europe, and especially in Ukraine. Some do it with a lot of
cynicism, others lack understanding, and a third [group] needs help in
understanding this," Kuchma said at a press conference in a training
center for interior troops outside Kiev. Kuchma said that "as a
specialist in this sphere," he knows that Ukraine cannot maintain nuclear
weapons on its own. This was the main reason for why the former Ukrainian
leadership renounced the nuclear status, he said. The service life of
Ukraine's nuclear warheads had expired by that time, he said. Moreover,
Russia and the United States had insisted that the number of countries in
the nuclear club was not to exceed five. Unfortunately, things turned out
differently, Kuchma said.
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