Ukrainian-related news stories from RFE

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RUSSIA AND NATO CALL FOR FREE ELECTION IN UKRAINE... Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Brussels on 9 December, after a session of the Russia-NATO Council in which he took part, that all members of the council were agreed that all sides should avoid interference in Ukraine and respect the country's sovereignty, territorial integrity, laws, and constitution, RIA-Novosti reported on 9 December. Russia and NATO adopted a joint resolution calling for "free and fair elections in Ukraine that reflect the will of the Ukrainian people," AFP reported. NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said "this is a major breakthrough" in defusing tensions between NATO members and Moscow. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell also said: "I'm pleased that Russia has joined with NATO [in agreeing] the statement today," AFP reported. VY

...AS FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS UKRAINE SHOULD DEFINE ITS FOREIGN POLICY ON ITS OWN. Speaking to journalists after the Russia-NATO meeting, Lavrov said that "geopolitically, Ukraine can be with neither the West nor with the East. It lies in Europe and has borders both with NATO, the European Union, and the CIS, including Russia," RIA-Novosti reported on 9 December. "And it is both wrong and unfair to push [Ukraine] into making a choice in favor of either side," he added. Lavrov also said that Ukraine should define its foreign-policy preferences on its own. VY

KYIV MAYOR WANTS TO RESTORE CITY TRAFFIC AFTER 'ORANGE REVOLUTION.' Oleksandr Omelchenko has appealed to the Committee for National Salvation, which coordinated the "orange-revolution" rallies in support of opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko, to transfer the tent camps pitched on Khreshchatyk, the capital's main street, and on Independence Square in order to restore city traffic, Ukrainian media reported on 10 December. "More than 440 tents pitched in Kyiv today is too large a number, particularly since the political and social situation, following the Verkhovna Rada's decision [on 8 December to pass an anticrisis legislative package], has relaxed," Omelchenko told journalists. Apart from the tent camps in downtown Kyiv, the opposition has left standing a huge stage on Independence Square from where Yushchenko and other opposition leaders addressed crowds during the two weeks of antigovernment demonstrations. JM

YUSHCHENKO SEES MOROZ AS CANDIDATE FOR UKRAINIAN PRIME MINISTER. Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz, who threw his support behind Yushchenko's presidential bid after the first election round on 31 October, said on the opposition Channel 5 on 9 December that Yushchenko has suggested that he head a "government of national trust" following a nonbinding parliamentary vote of no-confidence in Viktor Yanukovych's cabinet on 1 December (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 1 December 2004). Moroz said that he could agree to chair a new cabinet if President Leonid Kuchma heeded the parliamentary advice and dismissed Yanukovych's government. JM

YANUKOVYCH DISTANCES SELF FROM 'SHAMEFUL AUTHORITIES.' Prime Minister Yanukovych, who is on leave to campaign for the runoff election on 26 December, said on a Donetsk-based television channel on 9 December that the current situation in Ukraine is a "creeping anticonstitutional coup d'etat," the "Ukrayinska pravda" website (www2.pravda.com.ua/) reported. Yanukovych claimed that people who voted for him are now being "persecuted" in Ukraine. He distanced himself from the current authorities which, he said, are doing nothing to prevent such persecution. "I am the candidate of 15 million [voters]," Yanukovych said. "I am not campaigning as a candidate from the shameful authorities that have given up their positions." According to Yanukovych, a part of the government has now sided with Yushchenko. "In fact, I have to fight today against a united group," Yanukovych added. JM

UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT FIRES PROSECUTOR-GENERAL. President Kuchma on 9 December signed a decree dismissing Hennadiy Vasylyev from the post of prosecutor-general, Interfax reported. Kuchma announced this dismissal in the Verkhovna Rada on 8 December as a move to meet the opposition's demand and facilitate a political compromise that was reached on that day to overcome the political crises over flawed presidential elections. JM

EU UNVEILS ACTION PLANS FOR NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES. European Union External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner on 9 December told journalists that the commission has approved a first list of "action plans" aimed at reinforcing democracy, good governance, and respect for human rights in seven neighboring states, an RFE/RL correspondent in Brussels and international news agencies reported. The plans are part of the EU's new "European Neighborhood Policy" and are to include Moldova, Ukraine, Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority. Ferrero-Waldner stressed that the "neighborhood policy" is "not an enlargement policy." She said the policy "does not prejudge prospects for European countries that may at some future point wish to apply for membership, but it does not provide for a specific accession prospect either." She described the policy as "a substantial offer...of much deeper cooperation and progressive integration into certain EU policies and programs, depending, of course, on the fulfillment of commitments" undertaken by each of the signatories of the action plans. MS