Russia, Ukraine Call for Talks on Black Sea Fleet

The Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers, seeking to resolve an escalating dispute between their governments over control of the Black Sea Fleet, called Friday for negotiations that would satisfy both sides.

“On the Black Sea Fleet issue, I think that solutions can be found that would be acceptable to all sides,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Anatoly Zlenko said just before a meeting of foreign ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States opened in Moscow.

Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev, speaking separately to reporters about the growing conflicts over the division of the former Soviet Union’s armed forces, commented: “In this case, there are two paths: to divide everything and end up with nothing, or to come to an agreement in a civilized manner and resolve the issue in a way that serves (our) common interests.”

But in the Crimean headquarters of the fleet, the controversy over the famed armada of more than 350 vessels continued, with its commander, Adm. Igor Kasatonov, warning that splitting up the fleet would dangerously upset the strategic balance between what was the Soviet navy and the American 6th Fleet.

Some miffed officers even claimed that pilots from the former Soviet air force, serving in Ukrainian territory, were so upset by Ukraine’s attempts to take over all military units there that they may spontaneously fly their planes off to Russia, the Tass news agency reported.

Meanwhile, in the Russian Federation, an unconfirmed report by the prestigious Nezavisimaya Gazeta, or Independent Newspaper, said that Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin is considering issuing a decree, effectively taking control of all the former Soviet armed forces, including units on non-Russian territory.

The decree would make Yeltsin commander of the armed forces only until the Commonwealth could work out its future military structures. But, even so, it could be expected to bring major objections from other Commonwealth members, the report said.

Foreign Ministry officials, who wrapped up Friday’s meeting without announcing any major decisions and extended it through today, told the Russian Information Agency that “resolution of military-political problems in the framework of the Commonwealth involves significant complications.”

But Kozyrev denied that disagreements over the Black Sea Fleet and other issues means that the Commonwealth, formed only last month to reunite loosely most of the collapsed Soviet Union, is already falling apart; rather, it is “advancing toward cooperation step by step,” he said. He denied that the dispute over the fleet is a major political conflict, arguing that: “A conflict between states is a political collision of uncompromising interests. Here we are involved in a search.”

The foreign ministers mainly agreed on the need to ratify the international arms control agreements that the former Soviet Union had committed itself to by Jan. 25, the Russian Information Agency reported.

The meeting apparently did not address the Black Sea Fleet dispute, but Zlenko took the opportunity to comment that he had been “surprised, to put it lightly,” by Yeltsin’s declaration on Thursday that the fleet “was, is and will remain Russia’s.”

“I think this was said in the heat of the moment. . . ,” he said, adding that, “Such a question cannot be decided from the podium; it calls for sitting down at the negotiating table.”

Like Kozyrev, Zlenko argued that no real conflict exists between Russia and Ukraine over military affairs--they are simply “clarifying how to interpret the agreement attained in Minsk on Dec. 30.”

The Minsk agreement among the 11 Commonwealth members decreed that strategic forces would remain under joint command but gave each country the right to its own conventional forces in accordance with local legislation.

Ukraine contends that most of the Black Sea Fleet does not fulfill any strategic mission and that Ukraine’s legislation gives it the right to all former Soviet property on its territory.

Countering the Ukrainian arguments, Adm. Vladimir Chernavin, former commander of the Soviet navy, told a press conference at his Moscow headquarters that, although the fleet’s ships and planes carry no strategic nuclear weapons, they, nonetheless, fulfill strategic tasks.

Only 30% of the 70,000 seamen in the fleet are Ukrainian, Chernavin said, and none has taken the oath of loyalty to Ukraine that President Leonid M. Kravchuk is requiring of almost all troops on Ukrainian territory.

Kasatonov, the fleet’s commander, went so far as to argue that Ukraine would find itself unable to support the fleet’s massive appetite for fuel and supplies, and would end up selling off many of its ships.