Russia, Ukraine Settle Fleet Dispute : Military: Resolution of how to divide the Black Sea naval force opens way for ‘strategic partnership.’

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.”

The two presidents, who were in shirt sleeves and sunglasses, signed a document that fell short of full agreement on the key dispute before them--how to split up port facilities of the Black Sea Fleet. In a fashion typical of such summits, they did not tell reporters exactly what they had agreed on and answered no questions.

But the tone of their post-summit remarks, punctuated by a bearhug and three kisses to each other’s cheeks, suggested that the dispute had been downgraded to a technicality that would poison the relationship no more.

Yeltsin said the accord cleared the way for his first official visit to Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, to sign a treaty on a broad range of issues that would normalize ties between the most powerful former Soviet republics. The two presidents promised to meet once a month from now on.

“Our main task is a strategic partnership of two strong, great countries,” Yeltsin said.

Since the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, strains between the Slavic neighbors have threatened Europe’s stability and slowed nuclear disarmament. Disposition of the Black Sea Fleet--made up of 840 vessels--and its main harbors at Sevastopol became the biggest obstacle to regional accord.

Three times Yeltsin met with Kuchma’s predecessor, Leonid M. Kravchuk, and agreed on dividing the fleet, which is temporarily under the two presidents’ joint command. Each time, those agreements foundered on unsettled details.

While diplomats were able to narrow other bilateral differences into a sweeping draft treaty of friendship and cooperation, Yeltsin said in March he would not sign it until the fleet was at last divided.

Friday’s accord erased that condition, paving the way to agreements on trade, energy and debts.

The fleet was the weakest of four in the old Soviet navy. Its newest ship is 17 years old. But the quarrel over its division has been bitter and emotional, as it boiled down to a territorial dispute over Sevastopol.

Sevastopol was founded by Russia’s Catherine the Great in the 18th Century and became a symbol of Russian imperial naval power.

It was ceded to Ukraine along with the rest of the Crimean peninsula in 1954, when both countries were part of the Soviet Union.

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Last year, it was agreed that Ukraine would get 18% of the ships and trade the rest of its 50-50 share to Russia for debt relief.

But the talks deadlocked when Moscow insisted that the fledgling Ukrainian navy leave Sevastopol, giving the Russian navy exclusive basing rights there.

Ukraine refused, saying that would amount to Russian sovereignty over a Ukrainian city. It proposed renting out two of the sprawling city’s jagged bays for harboring Russia’s share of the fleet and keeping two others for Ukraine’s navy.

Friday’s agreement said Russia will base its share of the fleet in Sevastopol. Ukrainian officials told Reuters news service that Russia agreed in turn to allow the Ukrainian navy a presence in the city; the agreement itself neither provided for this nor ruled it out.

Nor did it say whether Russia would have sovereign rights over Russian bases in Sevastopol or lease them from Ukraine.

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Ukrainian officials insisted that they had made no concessions.

Boris I. Tarasyuk, the Ukrainian deputy foreign minister, told reporters: “Sevastopol is still a Ukrainian city.”

Kuchma conceded that “some detailed problems remain” but added: “I consider this problem resolved in general. . . . We have unraveled this knot.”

Viktor I. Borisyuk, a political adviser to Yeltsin, said “tons of work is still to be done” to divide the fleet.

But he said the decision to downplay the issue was “a major breakthrough,” based on a realization that the fleet is too old, unwieldy, ineffective and expensive to matter much.

“Both countries have at long last realized that neither needs such a giant juggernaut as the Black Sea Fleet,” he said. “Neither is capable of financing such a ‘black hole.’ ”