Ukrainian-related news stories from RFE

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NOTE TO READERS: CHORNOBYL 20 YEARS AFTER -- Visit RFE/RL's website (http://www.rferl.org) to read our complete coverage of the 20th anniversary of the world's worst civilian nuclear-power disaster, including features on environmental and health concerns, the fates of the liquidators who worked to contain the damage, the political consequences of the accident, and more. RFE/RL will also have complete coverage of today's commemorations and links to our coverage in Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Russian.

BELARUSIAN OPPOSITION MARKS CHORNOBYL ANNIVERSARY WITH ANTIPRESIDENTIAL MARCH... An estimated crowd of 7,000-10,000 mainly young people took part in the Chornobyl Way rally organized by the Belarusian opposition in Minsk on April 26, Belarusian and international news agencies reported. The rally was permitted by the authorities who, however, warned demonstrators to stay away from October Square, which was the site of protests last month against President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's reelection. "If we stay together, we can defeat a dictatorship that denied the Belarusian people a choice and kept them from electing the president legally," Milinkevich told the crowd from the steps of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences building. "We will destroy this regime through acts of peaceful disobedience. We will not wait for the next election in five years. We can overcome the dictatorship in the next two years, perhaps sooner." Milinkevich called on people to join the newly created civic movement For Freedom. Belarusian Television reported in its main newscast in the evening that the rally was attended by "several hundred regulars for whom going to meetings is a favorite hobby." JM

...WHICH LEADS TO ARREST OF SOME OPPOSITION LEADERS. Several men in civilian clothes arrested Belarusian Popular Front leader Vintsuk Vyachorka in Minsk on April 26, immediately following the Chornobyl Way rally, Belarusian and international news agencies reported. Vyachorka is believed to remain in police custody, although his whereabouts are unknown. Earlier the same day, State Security Committee (KGB) officers reportedly arrested United Civic Party leader Anatol Lyabedzka, who was handcuffed, had his head covered with a jacket, and was subsequently driven around the city for several hours. Later he was taken to the KGB office and questioned by two investigators. The investigators said the interrogation was part of a criminal case initiated under an article carrying punishment for "terrorism." Lyabedzka was released at 10:30 p.m. after the Chornobyl rally had ended in Minsk. He told RFE/RL's Belarus Service that he was beaten during his detention and the interrogation. On April 27, police arrested opposition leader Alyaksandr Milinkevich; Belarusian Party of Communists leader Syarhey Kalyakin, head of Milinkevich's presidential campaign; and Labor Party leader Alyaksandr Bukhvostau. JM

KYIV WANTS TO SEE OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS ON ROSUKRENERGO AUDIT. The Secretariat of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko wants to obtain the official documents an April 26 "Izvestia" article cited in listing two Ukrainian businessmen as the stakeholders of RosUkrEnergo, a company that controls Ukraine's gas imports, Interfax-Ukraine reported on April 26. "Izvestia" on April 26 cited an audit by PriceWaterhouseCoopers in reporting that Kyiv basketball club owner Dmytro Firtash and Ivan Fursin, owner of a Ukrainian bank, own 90 percent and 10 percent, respectively, of a company called Centragas Holding AG. Centragas in turn owns a 50 percent stake in RosUkrEnergo, which is the monopolist of gas supplies to Ukraine according to a deal concluded between Kyiv and Moscow in January. The other half of RosUkrEnergo is owned by Gazprom. The Austrian bank Raiffeisen Zentralbank on April 26 announced that it is holding the stake on Firtash's and Fursin's behalf. Yushchenko has repeatedly defended the January gas deal, which increased the gas price for Ukraine from $50 to $95 per 1,000 cubic meters and introduced the secretive Swiss-based intermediary RosUkrEnergo as the monopolist supplier. JM

PRESIDENT WANTS CHORNOBYL TO RETURN 'TO THE FOLDS OF UKRAINE.' President Yushchenko on April 26 addressed a meeting in the town of Chornobyl to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the disaster at the nearby Chonobyl nuclear power plant, Ukrainian media reported. "Chornobyl has to return to the folds of Ukraine, has to return not to be protected but to be developed. Together with the United Nations organization, together with European Union member states and our other international partners, we will prove that there are neither black holes nor blank spots of territorial exclusion in Ukraine," Yushchenko said. He predicted that Ukraine will soon begin construction of a new sarcophagus over the reactor that exploded in 1986. He also repeated his support for a controversial plan to convert part of the Chornobyl exclusion zone to a holding facility for spent radioactive fuel from other Ukrainian nuclear reactors, dpa reported. JM