Ukraine Declares Own Laws Take Precedence

The Parliament of the Ukraine, following sovereignty decrees by other republics, declared today that its own laws take precedence over Soviet law, the official Tass news agency reported.

The Ukraine is the Soviet Union’s second-largest republic, with more than 50 million people. It also is a key industrial and farming region.

The republic’s Parliament, meeting in the capital of Kiev, declared the “supremacy, independence, absolute authority and indivisibility” of Ukrainian authority on the republic’s territory, Tass said.

But the news agency added that the majority of deputies who spoke during the Supreme Soviet’s debate did not support secession from the Soviet Union.

Instead, they said, sovereignty “should not break the existing social, economic and cultural and other ties with republics, but develop them,” Tass said.

In its declaration, the Ukraine followed the lead of the huge Russian republic, the Baltic republics and several other Soviet republics clamoring for more independence from the central government.

Some Ukrainian nationalists support total independence for their republic, but the movement is not as far advanced as those in other Soviet republics, such as the Baltics.

Today’s declaration called for the Ukraine’s “independence and equal rights in external relations” and stated that the republic has the right to have its own armed forces, Tass said.

Now, the Ukraine’s youth cannot perform military service outside the republic without Parliament’s permission.