With the kind permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, InfoUkes Inc. has been given rights to electronically re-print these articles on our web site. Visit the RFE/RL Ukrainian Service page for more information. Also visit the RFE/RL home page for news stories on other Eastern European and FSU countries.

Return to Main RFE News Page
InfoUkes Home Page

UKRAINIAN NATIONALIST LEADER DETAINED. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on 21 March detained Andriy Shkil, leader of the nationalist Ukrainian National Assembly-Ukrainian Self-Defense (UNAUNSO), Interfax reported. The SBU said in a statement that Shkil was detained as a suspect in connection with an investigation into the 9 March violent demonstrations in Kyiv (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 12 March 2001). Ukrainian media reported previously that UNA-UNSO members were active participants in the 9 March clashes with police, in which some 50 people were injured. JM

UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT PROLONGS SUSPENSE OVER INTERIOR MINISTER'S FATE... Leonid Kuchma on 21 March said he has not signed a decree to sack Interior Minister Yuriy Kravchenko, as alleged earlier by some politicians and media (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 19 and 20 March 2001). Asked if he intended to sign, Kuchma answered: "Follow what's in the press." JM

...ASKS FOREIGN EXPERTS TO RE-EXAMINE HEADLESS CORPSE... President Kuchma also said Ukraine has asked the U.S., Germany, and Russia to conduct a new expert analysis of the decapitated body that is believed to be that of missing journalist Heorhiy Gongadze. "Such a well-known case must be investigated in a more transparent manner and be more open to the public. Nobody should think that someone wants to hide something, because today it's impossible to conceal anything," AP quoted Kuchma as saying on 21 March. Kuchma's request came after German genetic experts questioned the identity of a body that was found near Kyiv and officially recognized as Gongadze's (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 21 March 2001). JM

...AND DISAPPROVES OF NEW PARLIAMENTARY GROUP. President Kuchma criticized the recent formation of the Ukraine's Regions caucus in the parliament (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 21 March 2001), Interfax reported on 21 March. "This is yet another confirmation that a [parliamentary] election campaign has already started off," he noted, adding that this campaign will impair the efficiency of parliamentary work. JM

GAZPROM REPORTEDLY SUES UKRAINE FOR STOLEN GAS. Anatolii Podmyshalskii, Gazprom's representative in Ukraine, told Interfax on 21 March that Russia's gas monopoly has sued Ukraine in an international court in order to obtain compensation for 1.1 billion cubic meters of gas that Ukraine allegedly siphoned off in the first half of 2000. Podmyshalskii did not specify in which court the suit was filed. According to Podmyshalskii, Ukraine stole 8.8 billion cubic meters of Russian transit gas in the first six months of 2000 and has not stopped the practice of illegal gas siphoning since then. JM

POLAND'S NATIONAL REMEMBRANCE INSTITUTE TO INVESTIGATE ANOTHER POGROM. Leon Kieres, head of the National Remembrance Institute, said on 21 March that he will soon order an investigation into a 1941 pogrom of Jews in Radzilowo, northeastern Poland, Polish Television reported. Several hundred Jews were murdered in Radzilowo on 7 June 1941, allegedly in a similar manner as 1,600 Jews in the nearby town of Jedwabne three days later. The inscription on a monument in Radzilowo says 800 Jews died there in 1941 at the hands of the fascists. The National Remembrance Institute is currently investigating the muchpublicized case of the Jedwabne massacre (see "RFE/RL Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine Report," 20 March 2001). JM

...AND TRANSDNIESTER LEADERSHIP. After talks with Pastukhov in Tiraspol, Grigorii Marakutsa, chairman of the Transdniester Supreme Soviet, said it would be "premature" to convoke the OSCE meeting in Bratislava on 27-28 March, which is scheduled to discuss the Transdniester conflict. That meeting, he said, must await the election of the new Moldovan president, who should then meet with separatist leader Igor Smirnov to agree on the conditions under which negotiations can be resumed, Infotag reported. Valerii Litskay, who is "foreign minister" in the breakaway region's government, said Pastukhov did not discuss any planned visit to Tiraspol by Primakov. Marakutsa said that before Primakov had come out with his proposals for solving the conflict "we had made some progress" on the Ukrainian proposals for "a gradual rapprochement." It is therefore necessary to decide, he said, "on which proposals we should work" before negotiating at the upcoming Bratislava OSCE meeting. MS