Ukraine Claims Ownership of Nuclear Arms on Its Soil

The Ukrainian Parliament claimed legal ownership of all former Soviet nuclear weapons on its soil Friday, apparently ruling out early ratification of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that renounces their use.

The decision, adopted by a 226-to-15 vote, was a setback for the Clinton Administration, which has lobbied intensely to hold Ukraine to its president’s promise to give up the weapons and declare itself a nuclear-free state. The vote was also likely to alarm Russia, which intends to remain the sole atomic power of the former Soviet Union.

Arms specialists in Moscow warned that the decision could delay nuclear arms reduction by the United States and Russia, unravel efforts to halt nuclear proliferation worldwide, and give justification for Ukrainians who want to take physical control of nuclear weapons for their own arsenal.

U.S. intelligence officials say they have evidence of support in Ukraine’s military-industrial complex, which manufactured some of the Soviet nuclear missiles, to get control of their launch mechanisms from Moscow--a process they believe could take up to two years.

Ukraine has more than 1,600 strategic nuclear warheads on its territory, more than any nation except the United States and Russia. All are controlled by Russian generals in Moscow under accords reached after the Soviet Union collapsed in late 1991.

Parliament’s resolution, attached to a document outlining foreign policy goals, said Ukraine has no will to use or threaten to use nuclear arms and “stresses its intention to become a non-nuclear state in the future.”

Lawmakers said asserting the concept of “ownership” is meant to strengthen Ukraine’s hand in negotiations to wrest more money from Washington and Moscow to pay for dismantling the weapons, as well as guarantees that a nuclear-free Ukraine will not come under military attack.

In Washington, a senior defense official said it is important to underline that the Ukrainian legislators declared their ultimate intention to be a non-nuclear power.

U.S. officials said they continue to believe that Ukraine must and will abide by its 1992 commitment to become non-nuclear and release the weapons to Russia, in spite of Friday’s vote.

The senior defense official said it has long been known that Ukrainian legislators believe the nuclear weapons on their soil belong to them. He also noted that the Ukrainians are deeply concerned that they will not receive their fair share of funds generated by the sale of uranium drawn from the weapons when they are dismantled.

Russia made no official comment on Ukraine’s action. But Sergei M. Rogov, a leading military specialist at Moscow’s USA-Canada Institute, called it “a serious threat to world stability and security.”

“No country that declares itself an owner of nuclear weapons ever gives them up,” Rogov said.

Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk promised last year that Ukraine’s Parliament would promptly ratify not only the Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968, which forswears acquisition or control of nuclear weapons, but also the 1991 Soviet-American START I agreement, which obliges Ukraine to dismantle most of the warheads on its soil within seven years.

Those treaties were also signed by Belarus and Kazakhstan, the other former Soviet republics that inherited nuclear weapons. Belarus has ratified both; Kazakhstan has ratified START I but is holding back on the Non-Proliferation Treaty, apparently waiting to see what Ukraine will do.

Ukrainian lawmakers feel increasingly threatened by rising nationalism in Russia, which has territorial claims here, and disappointed by Washington’s unwillingness to offer formal security guarantees.

Tensions with Moscow have risen lately because of threats of a mutiny by Russian sailors refusing to obey a Russian-Ukrainian government decision to equally divide the Crimea-based Black Sea naval fleet.

The Ukrainian government is also asking $2 billion to cover the costs of dismantling the warheads and disposing of rocket fuel, more than 10 times what the United States has offered.

The Clinton Administration has made Ukrainian compliance with both treaties a high priority. Defense Secretary Les Aspin and Strobe Talbott, the President’s special envoy to the former Soviet Union, both have visited Kiev this year, offering to broaden U.S.-Ukrainian ties in return.

But Ukrainian resistance hardened this week after the U.S. cruise missile strike against Iraq. Kiev accused Washington of violating international law.

Meanwhile, a consensus has grown in Ukraine’s Parliament, which was elected in the Communist era and is more xenophobic than Kravchuk, that Ukraine should ratify only the START I pact and ignore the Non-Proliferation Treaty, at least until Ukraine’s security demands are met.

Advocates of that path gained the support last month of Prime Minister Leonid Kuchma, who once headed the plant that produced Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles.

“These are rockets of our own making, and we know how to use them,” he reportedly told a closed Parliament session.

Ukraine has 1,240 nuclear warheads on 130 aging Russian-made SS-19 missiles and 46 more modern SS-24 missiles made at home, as well as at least 400 nuclear-tipped, air-launched cruise missiles.

Lawmakers said Friday they are willing to comply with START I by dismantling the 130 older missiles but want to keep the rest until other nuclear powers sign a multilateral treaty pledging to respect Ukraine’s territory and defend it from attack.

The United States and Russia oppose such an idea, and Russia’s Supreme Soviet has said it will not ratify START I until Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan ratify both treaties.

And until Russia ratifies START I, Russia and the United States cannot implement a START II accord signed in January by President Boris N. Yeltsin and then-President George Bush. The second treaty would leave the United States and Russia with about 3,500 warheads each, down from a current total of 21,000.

Times staff writer Boudreaux reported from Moscow, special correspondent Seely from Kiev. Staff writer Melissa Healy, in Washington, and Andrei Ostroukh of the Moscow Bureau contributed to this report.