Ukraine Demands Seat at Any Nuclear Disarmament Talks

Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk on Friday demanded a seat for his republic, the base for about half of the Soviet Union’s SS-19 intercontinental ballistic missiles, at all future negotiations on nuclear disarmament.

Kravchuk, whose proposal would bring the Ukraine into the very exclusive club of the world’s nuclear powers, said the Ukraine wants to take part in disarmament negotiations in order to promote the elimination of all nuclear weapons, strategic as well as tactical.

But he also made clear the Ukraine’s determination to win effective “nuclear parity” with Russia by retaining control of the nuclear weapons, including 176 of the SS-19 intercontinental ballistic missiles, that are now on its territory.

Rejecting the proposal of Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin that his republic take over the whole Soviet nuclear arsenal, Kravchuk said the weapons in the Ukraine would only be moved to carry out their destruction under international agreements.

“It is important to preserve the status quo on the siting of nuclear weapons so that no single republic can take over the entire nuclear potential of the Soviet Union,” Kravchuk told a news conference in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, on his return from a visit to the United States, France and Canada.

He also called for a two-key system of control over the Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons so that there would be a unified command structure but a republic veto over any use.

Rather than complicate future disarmament negotiations, the Ukraine’s plan would promote a more rapid reduction of the Soviet nuclear arsenal, Kravchuk contended.

“The Ukraine, as the country that suffered Chernobyl, is for destroying all nuclear weapons,” he said, referring to the April, 1986, explosion and fire at the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station about 80 miles north of Kiev.

Contending that the Soviet legislature is no longer “operational,” Kravchuk said he will ask the Ukrainian Parliament to ratify a Soviet-American treaty, signed in Moscow two months ago, on a 30% reduction in the two countries’ strategic arsenals. About 130 of the Ukraine-based SS-19s will be destroyed under the agreement, according to Kravchuk.

“As the base for such powerful and expensive nuclear weapons, the Ukraine will demand participation in all future agreements,” he added.

Kravchuk emphasized throughout his news conference the Ukraine’s determination to assert its independence and sovereignty.

Despite pressure from Russia and some of the Soviet Union’s other republics to reconstitute it as a “Union of Sovereign States,” Kravchuk said the Ukraine will only enter into agreements “in which it does not lose a drop of its statehood.”

Special correspondent Mary Mycio, in Kiev, contributed to this report.