The author is an RFE/RL correspondent based in Kyiv.

UKRAINIAN SECURITY SERVICE CLAIMS TO HAVE FOILED STATE COUP. Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) on 22 September announced that it has arrested a group of people who prepared an armed coup d'etat, Interfax reported. According to the SBU, the group--which included residents of Chernihiv, Sumy, and Zaporizhzhya Oblasts--started setting up military groups and gathering intelligence on the location of military units and weapons deposits. The group selected the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, the dam at the Kyiv water reservoir, and gas pipelines as targets for terrorist attacks. And it also wrote leaflets calling for an armed revolt and for legislation to be passed by new authorities. "The persons under investigation wanted to destroy our system with violent methods," SBU chief Leonid Derkach commented the following day but refused to give any details. JM

UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT TO SELL COMPANIES' PROPERTY FOR DEBTS. Deputy Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov on 22 September said that in order to repay foreign loans taken by companies under state guaranties, the government intends to sell those companies' property, Interfax reported. A government directive issued last month obliged Ukrainian companies to repay some $130 million in state-guaranteed foreign credits by the end of 2000. Between 1 January 1992 and 1 October 1997, the government granted its guarantees to $2.456 billion worth of foreign credits to Ukrainian companies. JM

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