Russia Foreign Relations Ukraine

Thirteen men accused in the plot to overthrow Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev were charged Wednesday with high treason, a crime that can carry a sentence of death by firing squad, as vigilante groups sprouted around the country to ferret out their accomplices. The Russian Federation prosecutor general made it clear that the net has been cast wider for the others involved.

Ukraine's defense minister publicly admitted for the first time that he never doubted that a Ukrainian missile was responsible for downing a Russian passenger jet. "For me, from the very beginning, there were no other versions and there could not be," said Lt. Gen. Oleksandr Kuzmuk, who is expected to resign as defense minister. His remarks were shown on Russia's NTV television. The Tu-154 airliner, en route from Israel to Novosibirsk in Siberia, went down Oct.

Worried by territorial claims, political pressure and possible economic boycotts from its powerful neighbor Russia, Ukraine will demand international guarantees for its security as it gives up the nuclear arsenal inherited from the Soviet Union, Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk said Tuesday.

Ukraine's military continued to deny that a rogue missile blew up a Russian airliner last week, killing 78, as angry and grieving relatives visited the Black Sea crash site. But President Leonid D. Kuchma, facing pressure to disclose more about the missile exercises on the Crimean peninsula last Thursday, did not rule out that a rocket could have gone wildly off course. "Technically it is impossible, but theoretically everything is possible," Kuchma told reporters.

Ukrainian President Leonid M. Kravchuk proposed Friday that Russia and neighboring Belarus join with his new nation to form a Slavic commonwealth as the old Soviet Union continues to disintegrate. Kravchuk, riding the crest of nationalism in Ukraine, which voted Sunday for independence, would bring together three of the 15 former Soviet republics in a loose confederation that could ensure that their economic ties remain intact.

Russian prosecutors issued bribery and smuggling charges Wednesday against a high-profile Ukrainian opposition figure who already faces corruption charges at home. The accusations against Yulia Tymoshenko came 10 days after Vladimir V. Putin, the president of Russia, visited Ukraine and met with President Leonid D. Kuchma, signaling closer ties between the two nations.

President Vladimir V. Putin named ex-Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin as ambassador to Ukraine in a surprise move signaling an upgrading of ties with a key ex-Soviet republic. Chernomyrdin headed Russia's natural gas monopoly Gazprom before serving as President Boris N. Yeltsin's premier from 1992 to 1998. His appointment may reflect Moscow's determination to recoup Ukraine's natural gas debts, estimated at $1.4 billion to $2 billion.

Russia and Ukraine announced Friday that their bitter three-year quarrel over how to divide the Soviet navy's smallest fleet was mostly settled and no longer stood in the way of a "strategic partnership." "I regard this event as a historic one," Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin said after a four-hour meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Leonid D. Kuchma, in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi. "Today we . . . have resolved this question once and for all."

Tensions between the two largest republics of the former Soviet Union flared again Friday, when Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin threatened to take the Black Sea Fleet under his control if "anyone"--meaning Ukraine--attempts to change its status.

Russian and Ukrainian officials plan five days of meetings in this seaside Ukrainian city starting Wednesday in one more attempt to resolve their differences over the future of the former Soviet Black Sea Fleet. With 345 surface ships, 28 submarines, 159 aircraft and 90,000 men, the Black Sea Fleet is roughly the same size as the British or French navy, and is a prize that both states would love to have.

Russian prosecutors issued bribery and smuggling charges Wednesday against a high-profile Ukrainian opposition figure who already faces corruption charges at home. The accusations against Yulia Tymoshenko came 10 days after Vladimir V. Putin, the president of Russia, visited Ukraine and met with President Leonid D. Kuchma, signaling closer ties between the two nations.

President Vladimir V. Putin named ex-Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin as ambassador to Ukraine in a surprise move signaling an upgrading of ties with a key ex-Soviet republic. Chernomyrdin headed Russia's natural gas monopoly Gazprom before serving as President Boris N. Yeltsin's premier from 1992 to 1998. His appointment may reflect Moscow's determination to recoup Ukraine's natural gas debts, estimated at $1.4 billion to $2 billion.

A five-story apartment house on Prospekt Ostryakova stands blocks away from the Black Sea waterfront, but it has become the beachhead for a gathering Russian offensive to reclaim this strategic naval port and the rest of Crimea. The 300-unit apartment house was built by Moscow Mayor Yuri M. Luzhkov to house Russian navy families in a gesture of solidarity with the servicemen who he heavily intimates have been sold out by the Kremlin in its deal with Ukraine to divide the Black Sea Fleet.

The original scenario was just a little too close to reality for comfort. During this week's Sea Breeze '97 maneuvers, U.S. Marines were to deploy onto the plains surrounding this Ukrainian naval port to intervene in a mythical ethnic conflict in which rebels aided by a neighboring power sought to overthrow the government of "the orange country."

Ending one of history's oldest fraternal feuds, Russia and Ukraine signed away a millennium of rivalry and resentment Saturday with a friendship treaty destined to shape a new era of relations between Europe's biggest states. With his signature on the accord pledging respect for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin gave up Moscow's long-running claims on Crimea.

After more than half a decade of wrangling and five different announcements that the problem had been solved, Ukraine and Russia said Wednesday that they finally have agreed on how to split custody of the former Soviet Union's most infamous orphan: the Black Sea Fleet. "This opens the road for Boris Yeltsin's visit to Kiev," Russian Prime Minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin announced after signing what he called historic fleet agreements with his Ukrainian counterpart, Pavlo Lazarenko.

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators failed to show up for talks Wednesday on the disputed Black Sea Fleet, apparently because of political turmoil in Russia, the Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported. The two sides were scheduled to discuss their conflicting claims to the fleet, which has more than 300 ships.

In assurances to Russia and NATO made public Wednesday, Ukraine's leadership backed down unmistakably from its worrying announcement last week that it was halting the promised transfer of its tactical nuclear arms to Russia. Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin told legislative leaders that his Ukrainian counterpart, Leonid Kravchuk, has assured him in a telephone conversation that all the weapons will be handed over to Russia for destruction by this July, as agreed to late last year.

With its infrared night-vision optics, antiaircraft machine guns and desert-storming diesel engine, the T-80UD tank is a formidable assault weapon. And when a contingent of them recently trundled through Islamabad, it signaled a Ukrainian conquest--but not by force of arms. The tanks displayed during a military parade had invaded a market, with a $600-million contract for Ukraine to sell 320 T-80UDs to Pakistan. It is Kiev's biggest arms sale to date. But officials are still cagey about it.

The upper house of Russia's parliament Thursday publicly laid claim to Ukraine's Black Sea naval port of Sevastopol, saying it was part of Russia and Kiev had no legal right to govern it. The Federation Council, in a move likely to cause a storm of protest in Kiev and further worsen mistrustful relations between the two governments, endorsed the demand that Ukraine surrender the city by a majority of 110 to 14.