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RUSSIAN OIL MIGHT FLOW THROUGH ODESA-BRODY PIPELINE. Ukrainian oil-pipeline operator Ukrtransnafta and Russian oil company TNK-BP, formed by the Tyumen Oil Company (TNK) and U.K.-based BP, have signed a contract to ship 9 million tons of Russian oil annually through the Odesa-Brody pipeline to the Yuzhny port oil terminal in Odesa for the next three years, Interfax reported on 27 July. Companies also signed four additional agreements allowing Ukrtransnafta to get a loan of up to $108 million for the purchase of 425,000 tons of crude oil and insure against financial risks, said Leonid Nester, the head of Ukrtransnafta's international cooperation department. The contract provides for 100 percent prepayment for the service and fines for any refusal to ship the agreed amount of oil, Nester said. The contract also provides for a possible change in the direction of shipments on condition that the other side is warned three months in advance (see "RFE/RL Belarus and Ukraine Report," 20 July 2004). AM
UKRAINE NOT READY TO JOIN NATO, PREMIER SAYS. Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych said on 27 July that Ukraine is not yet prepared to join NATO, Interfax reported. "The real development of Ukraine's economy, its civic society, and implementation of the North Atlantic alliance criteria do not allow either Ukraine or NATO to speak about a real time of accession," Yanukovych said. His statement followed the unveiling of amendments to Ukraine's military doctrine that include the removal of a provision about full membership of NATO and the EU (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 27 July 2004). The new doctrine was welcomed by the Russian Foreign Ministry as well as by the leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Petro Symonenko. According to Symonenko, Ukraine should solve its defense problems outside NATO. Borys Tarasyuk, head of the Verkhovna Rada's committee for European integration and a former Ukrainian foreign minister, called the changes inconsistent with Ukraine's foreign policy. AM
MOLDOVAN REINTEGRATION MINISTER SAYS CHISINAU WILL NOT NEGOTIATE UNTIL SCHOOLS ARE REOPENED. Integration Minister Vasilii Sova said on 27 July that Moldova will not return to the negotiating table before the crisis triggered by the closure of six schools is resolved, Infotag reported. "We cannot negotiate while the children are suffering and while participants in the negotiations prove incapable of solving this humanitarian issue," he said. At his news conference in Chisinau (see above), OSCE mission head Hill said, "There is always hope" for the negotiations to be resumed and the three mediators (OSCE, Russia and Ukraine) are doing everything in their power to see that happen. MS