U.S. Grants Asylum to Ukrainian Whistle-Blower

The United States has granted political asylum to a fugitive Ukrainian security officer who accused President Leonid D. Kuchma of involvement in the killing of a critical journalist, and to the journalist’s wife, the Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

A Foreign Ministry statement said the asylum for Maj. Mykola Melnichenko amounted to sheltering a man suspected of causing significant damage to national security.

“The U.S. side’s decision . . . is viewed by Ukraine as failing to correspond to the spirit of Ukrainian-American partnership and as creating obstacles in the way of a criminal investigation,” the ministry said.

In Washington, the State Department declined to comment.

The step could complicate relations between the two countries and strengthen claims by some Russians and Ukrainians that Washington has tacitly supported the political opposition with the goal of ousting Kuchma.

Ukraine is seeking to boost relations with the West and cooperates in North American Treaty Organization-sponsored events while also trying to keep good relations with Russia. The United States has expressed support for Ukraine’s reform efforts but has questioned Kuchma’s commitment to democracy and human rights.

Melnichenko resigned from the president’s bodyguard service last year and went into hiding abroad. He then released tapes that he said were made by a recorder hidden in Kuchma’s office.

In the recordings, a voice resembling Kuchma’s is heard discussing steps to silence journalist Georgi Gongadze, an outspoken critic. Gongadze disappeared in September after the tapes were allegedly made. His beheaded body was later found near the capital, Kiev.

Although Kuchma has strongly denied involvement, and the tapes’ authenticity could not be proved either by foreign or domestic experts, opposition movements have staged protests for several months to demand Kuchma’s ouster.

Also granted asylum was Gongadze’s widow, Myroslava, who had helped her husband in various projects and served as a spokeswoman for an opposition party. She reportedly left Ukraine earlier last week with her twin daughters.