[Ohio UZO News] Ukraine: FT (lead editorial); AP; NYT; WSJ

[Deychak, Orest]

Financial Times

Backing Kiev

Published: September 8 2008 

It is surely more than a coincidence that Ukraine's pro-west coalition
government has collapsed with the Georgian crisis still raging.

The country descended into political chaos last week just before Dick
Cheney, the US vice-president, came with a message of support and days
before President Viktor Yushchenko travels tomorrow to France for the
Ukraine-European Union summit.

Mr Yushchenko suggests Russia has contributed to Kiev's political
turmoil. And clearly the Kremlin benefits from having Kiev's capers
exposed at such a sensitive time.

But the prime responsibility lies with Ukraine's leaders. Mr Yushchenko
and Yulia Tymoshenko, his prime minister, have failed to capitalise on
their joint triumph in the 2004 Orange Revolution. Instead of
co-operating to lead Ukraine decisively towards the west, with EU
membership as a top priority, they are locked in a power struggle.

To be fair, the constitutional deal that ended the Orange Revolution
left Kiev with a messy division of power between president and
parliament. But instead of making the best of a bad situation, the two
Orange leaders have frittered away their chances. The main beneficiary
is Viktor Yanukovich, the pro-Russia opposition leader, who remains
powerful, despite his role in the disputed 2004 presidential poll.

All three are now manoeuvring with an eye on next year's presidential
poll in which Mr Yushchenko, his support plunging, will struggle to
retain office. The three must put Ukraine's interests before their own
and impose restraints on how dirtily they will campaign. But, given the
record so far, there is little hope they will actually do so.

For Russia, this all creates opportunities, ranging from stirring up
ethnic Russian minorities in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, to manipulating
energy supplies.

The west must bolster its support for Kiev. The answer lies not in
US-backed hopes of advancing Kiev's Nato membership bid. Aside from the
dangers of provoking Russia, Ukrainians are split over Nato. Much better
to focus on Kiev's EU accession bid, which is widely supported in
Ukraine. The Union should promise Kiev future membership. Even with
united leaders it would take Ukraine a decade to do the necessary
reforms. There would be enough time for the EU to complete its current
enlargement plans and win support for Ukraine's bid from a sceptical EU
public.

A future membership pledge would not, in itself, protect Ukraine from
outside interference. But by giving Kiev's leaders a common goal, it
would make that interference easier to resist.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

 

AP

Ukraine PM says she's summoned on treason charge 

8 September 2008

08:27

 

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukraine's prime minister says she's been summoned
by prosecutors to answer the president's accusations of high treason
amid a fierce political struggle.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and President Viktor Yushchenko are
locked in a battle for power ahead of the 2010 presidential vote.

Yushchenko had accused Tymoshenko of inadequately condemning Russia's
actions in Georgia, and the presence of the Russian fleet in Ukraine, in
exchange for the Kremlin's support in the presidential race. She denies
that.

Tymoshenko says she received a subpoena to appear Thursday. Prosecutors
declined to comment.

Yushchenko and Tymoshenko were partners in the 2004 Orange Revolution
but their governing coalition collapsed. The country faces the prospect
of new parliamentary elections.

Financial Times

Collaboration claims are 'comical'

By Roman Olearchyk in Kiev 

Published: September 8 2008 

Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine's prime minister, has accused Viktor
Yushchenko, the country's president, of jeopardising both bilateral
relations with Russia and western integration initiatives by labelling
her a Kremlin conspirator during the collapse of their coalition last
week.

In an interview with the Financial Times Ms Tymoshenko hit back at
allegations that she had sided with Russia and was weak in her support
for Georgia during last month's conflict between the two countries. She
accused Mr Yushchenko of tarnishing her image in an attempt to score
points with voters ahead of next year's presidential election.

Mr Yushchenko's party last week pulled out of the ruling coalition after
Ms Tymoshenko's camp voted with Moscow-leaning parties to curtail
presidential powers. Ms Tymoshenko, in turn, accused the president's
party of systematically sabotaging her government.

"Pointing the finger at Moscow is stupid. The coalition collapsed not by
the hand of the Kremlin, but by the president's decision," Ms Tymoshenko
said, urging Mr Yushchenko to revive the coalition.

She said starting a presidential campaign "this way . . . complicated
the country's plans for closer integration with Brussels and Nato".

"I well understand his hysteria because polls show his rating has sunk
from 53 per cent to 5 per cent."

At an European Union-Ukraine summit tomorrow in the French town of
Evian, Kiev hopes to win support for associate membership of the EU. In
December Nato will review a membership action plan for Ukraine and
Georgia. Both organisations are uneasy over the latest bout of political
infighting in Kiev, which could complicate relations with Russia.

Ties with Moscow soured after the 2004 Orange Revolution brought Mr
Yushchenko and Ms Tymoshenko to power. Both have pushed to break
Moscow's grip on energy supplies but Ukraine remains vulnerable, a
position that will worsen if their on-off alliance turns into a
cut-throat power struggle. Fears loom that a Georgia-style conflict
could erupt between Ukraine and Moscow, which is staunchly against
Nato's eastward expansion.

Ms Tymoshenko stressed her support for Georgia's territorial integrity
but said only "balanced and harmonised" relations with Russia would
avoid trouble and make Ukraine a reliable partner for the west.

"Ukraine needs peace, stability and investment."

Dismissing as "comical" allegations from the president that she had
plotted with the Kremlin, she insisted she had pushed to cut Russia's
grasp over Ukraine's energy sector.

She also claimed that Mr Yushchenko had protected "Russian interests" in
a strategic Black Sea hydrocarbon exploration project. By cancelling the
venture, "where Russian interests were camouflaged by Houston-based
Vanco Energy . . . I returned Ukraine's strategic Black Sea gas
reserves".

Asked if she would run for president next year, the prime minister said:
"Before this I was willing to support a single candidate. After the
events of last week I am seriously considering it." 

 

The New York Times

September 6, 2008


Cheney Pledges Support for Ukraine  


Sergey Dolzhenko/European Pressphoto Agency

Vice President Cheney, his wife Lynne, left, and Ukrainian President
Viktor Yushchenko and his wife at the memorial for the victims of the
Holodomor in Kiev, Ukraine, on Friday. 

 

By STEVEN LEE MYERS

KIEV, Ukraine - President Viktor A. Yushchenko said Friday that the
question of Ukraine's membership in NATO had new urgency in the wake of
Russia's conflict with Georgia, even though his political coalition was
once again on the brink of collapse in part because of the issue.

Meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney, he also expressed concerns
about the broader threat that Russia posed to its neighbors in the
region. And he pressed the United States and its allies to reconsider a
decision in the spring not to begin a process intended to lead to
Ukraine's membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The conflict, Mr. Yushchenko said, "showed that there are security risks
in the Black Sea and we need to do everything possible to make
sufficient steps that would not allow expanding that threat to other
regions and other frozen conflicts."

Mr. Cheney expressed strong support for Ukraine's membership in NATO, as
he did the day before in Georgia, where Russian forces seized control of
two breakaway regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as "buffer
zones" in Georgian territory.

"The United States fully supports the right of Ukraine to build
ever-stronger ties of cooperation and security throughout Europe and
across the Atlantic," Mr. Cheney said, appearing with the Ukrainian
leader after separate meetings with him and his once and again estranged
ally, Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko.

Russia's anger over NATO's expansion has boiled over in recent months,
with Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin and other leaders denouncing the
alliance as an aggressive and destabilizing force on its borders. In
Moscow, the Foreign Ministry criticized Mr. Cheney's similar promises of
membership in the alliance to Georgia and its president, Mikheil
Saakashvili.

"Statements of this kind and new promises to Tbilisi of fast NATO
membership only strengthen the dangerous feeling of impunity of the
Saakashvili regime and encourage its aggressive ambitions," a spokesman,
Andrei Nesterenko, said.

Russia has blamed Mr. Saakashvili for inciting last month's brief war by
trying to seize control of South Ossetia on the night of Aug. 7.

The Bush administration has vigorously lobbied the alliance to offer
"membership action plans" to Ukraine and Georgia and considers the
alliance's expansion an important part of President Bush's "freedom
agenda." The NATO allies, led by Germany and others wary of aggravating
Russia, balked at that in April at the alliance's summit meeting in
Bucharest, though a final statement included a promise that both
countries could eventually join the alliance.

While the United States and most European countries have uniformly
denounced Russia's invasion, as well as its recognition of Abkhazia and
South Ossetia, there has been no collective agreement on how strongly to
respond. Even within the Bush administration, the matter is evidently
still largely unsettled, though the administration has been very
supportive of Georgia and Ukraine diplomatically, and has granted
Georgia an aid package of $1 billion. 

A senior administration official traveling with Mr. Cheney said he
believed that NATO would rethink its position on Georgia and Ukraine
when the alliance's foreign ministers met again in December. "People
have been shaken by events in Georgia," the official said. "It has
created a new situation. I think there are some indications that some of
the allies are looking with a fresh set of eyes."

The official said the Bush administration would expend "an awful lot of
energy" in its remaining months in office to build support for bringing
Ukraine and Georgia into the alliance.

In Avignon, France, the European Union's foreign ministers met to
discuss relations with Russia and Ukraine, and signaled a less
confrontational approach than the United States.

At a news conference, France's foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said
that it was vital to coordinate policy with the United States but that
Europe saw its relationship with Russia, a large and close neighbor,
differently from the way Washington did.

"Of course, Mr. Cheney, the vice president, has a certain sense of
protecting the people," he said when asked about Mr. Cheney's visit to
Ukraine. "I'm not so sure that with this sense of protecting the people
he has got a lot of success."

The European Union is to hold a summit meeting with Ukraine on Tuesday,
after a senior delegation visits Moscow to try to enforce the
French-brokered cease-fire agreement between Russia and Georgia.
European countries are discussing how warm an embrace to give Ukraine
after the Georgian fiasco.

Joining NATO has been a principal policy objective of Mr. Yushchenko
since he became president after public protests in 2004 that became
known as the Orange Revolution. But membership is far from popular in
Ukraine, where a majority of people remain hostile to the idea of
splitting so sharply with Russia. 

Differences over NATO and the war in Georgia contributed to political
tensions here. Those issues and a new effort last week to weaken the
president's powers splintered the fragile alliance between Mr.
Yushchenko and Ms. Tymoshenko, raising the prospect of a new round of
elections.

Mr. Cheney stepped carefully around Ukraine's internal political
disputes, the administration official said, but in public he urged the
two leaders to unite. "Ukraine's best hope to overcome these threats is
to be united - united domestically, first and foremost, and united with
other democracies," he said. 

A cold-war-like confrontation on the Black Sea continued Friday when the
Mount Whitney, the flagship of the United States Navy's Mediterranean
fleet, anchored outside the Georgian port of Poti with a delivery of
tons of aid supplies. 

Russian troops remained stationed on the outskirts of Poti in what the
Kremlin has called a security zone that stretches deep inside Georgian
territory. The Russians no longer patrol the city itself, and the port
is functioning normally, said a spokesman for Georgia's Interior
Ministry. The Mount Whitney began unloading its cargo uneventfully.

Reporting was contributed by Michael Schwirtz from Tbilisi, Georgia;
Clifford Levy from Moscow; Steven Erlanger from Avignon, France; Stephen
Castle from Brussels; and Neil MacFarquhar from the United Nations

  <javascript:void(0)> 

World News: Cheney Warns Ukraine --- Vice President Says Feuding Leaders
Must Pursue Unity 

By John D. McKinnon 

6 September 2008

A7

 

KIEV, Ukraine -- Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday suggested
Ukraine's feuding leaders settle their disputes to be sure they get the
help they might need from Western allies in fending off a newly
aggressive Russia.

In light of the threats of "economic blackmail or military invasion or
intimidation" in the region, Mr. Cheney said, Ukraine's "best hope to
overcome these threats is to be united -- united domestically first and
foremost, and united with other democracies." He spoke at a joint
appearance with President Viktor Yushchenko in Ukraine's presidential
office building.

Later, as Mr. Cheney flew to Italy for a speech on Saturday that is
expected to take a tough line on Russia, a senior administration
official elaborated on the vice president's comments.

"In the aftermath of the events in Georgia, we have a great interest in
supporting Ukraine's aspirations to have deeper integration into [the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization] and other Euro-Atlantic
institutions," the official said. "And the more that Ukrainians and
Ukrainian leaders can do to fulfill all the hopes and aspirations that
people have . . . the more the United States and Ukraine's other friends
in Europe and the international community will be able to do to help
Ukraine."

The official noted that Friday's discussions in Kiev came in the context
of a "political situation in Ukraine which is clearly in flux." He added
that U.S. officials weren't seeking to involve themselves in the
dispute.

Mr. Yushchenko this week withdrew his party from the pro-Western
coalition government, saying Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko had become
too close to a pro-Russian opposition party. If no compromise is found,
there will be new elections or a new coalition government that likely
would be closer to Moscow -- an indication of how Russia's assertiveness
is polarizing politics in the region. The effect is a potentially
powerful one in Ukraine, which is sharply divided between the
Russian-speaking east and the Ukrainian-speaking west.

Taken together, Friday's comments reflect the worries of President
George W. Bush's administration -- as well as those of many leaders of
young nations rising in Russia's shadow -- that Russia's incursion into
Georgia could be a sign of things to come elsewhere along its borders.
In a related matter, European Union ministers were set to discuss an
observer mission to Georgia to monitor Russia's much-criticized
compliance with a cease-fire agreement.

Asked whether Russia might be exerting behind-the-scenes influence in
the current Ukrainian political feuding, the official said, "It's hard
to say." The U.S. has "heard all of the allegations and claims about
Russian interference," the official added.

At the same time, the official held out hope that the Russian incursion
into Georgia last month has begun to change the thinking of some
European allies who had resisted putting Georgia and Ukraine on the fast
track for NATO membership earlier this year.

"People have been shaken by events in Georgia," the official said. "I
think there are some indications that some of the allies are looking
with a fresh set of eyes . . . at the new circumstances."

As he spoke, the USS Mount Whitney was anchored off nearby Georgia, at
the port of Poti, a city still partly occupied by Russian troops after
last month's conflict. The ship was delivering humanitarian supplies,
including blankets and powdered milk.

Still, it is far from clear that the U.S. and other supporters of
Ukraine and Georgia will be able to muster the votes to put them over
the top at a meeting in December. Much diplomatic work remains, the
administration official said.

In his joint appearance with Mr. Cheney, President Yushchenko said the
situation in Georgia means "we need to do everything possible to make
sufficient steps that would not allow expanding of that threat to other
regions" and other conflicts over separatist regions that are
sympathetic to Moscow. He worried openly over the possibility that Black
Sea navy forces might "get involved in the conflict with other
countries," a reference to the Russian fleet based in Sevastopol, a
Ukrainian port that Russia's navy uses.

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