From: clarinews@clarinet.com (GREGORY GRANSDEN)
Newsgroups: clari.news.gov.international,clari.news.military,clari.news.hot.east_europe,clari.news.hot.ussr,clari.news.issues.conflict,clari.news.politics,biz.clarinet.sample,clari.news.top.world
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Message-id: <russia-ukraineU2A8145ae@clarinet.com>
Subject: Russia, Ukraine vie for control of Black Sea fleet
Keywords: international, non-usa government, government, navy, military,
	war & peace, social issues, politics
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 92 22:52:01 PDT
Location: soviet union
ACategory: international
Slugword: russia-ukraine
Priority: major
Format: regular
ANPA: Wc: 617; Id: z0607; Sel: xxigf; Adate: 4-8-145aed; Ver: sked
Codes: yigfrxx., yimnrsu., yixwrsu., yip.rsu.
Note: (Editors: Repeating earlier story)

	MOSCOW (UPI) -- Russian President Boris Yeltsin, saying he wants to
resolve the status of the disputed Black Sea fleet, has issued a decree
asserting the warships belong to Russia.
	In fact, the issue of who controls the fleet is still swirling in
uncertain waters.
	Just one day before Yeltsin made his move, Ukrainian President Leonid
Kravchuk declared that the fleet belonged to his country.
	Russia and Ukraine, the two most populous republics of the
Commonwealth of Independent States, have been squabbling over the fleet
ever since the breakup of the Soviet Union, and the back-tgo back
decrees are just the latest skirmish.
	In a symbolic gesture to assert Russia's claim to the fleet, Yeltsin
ordered the historical Russian navy St. Andrew flag, established in 1699
under Czar Peter the Great, to be hoisted on the Black Sea ships, and he
said Russia would pay for operation of the naval units.
	Russian control of the warships was necessary, Yeltsin said, ``in
order to preserve stable control over the Black Sea fleet and its
fighting efficiency, to provide social defense of the servicemen and
their families, do justice to its historical traditions and because of
the uncertainty of the fleet status.''
	Kravchuk signed a decree Monday saying the Black Sea fleet would be
part of the independent Ukrainian armed forces but that some vessels
would remain under joint C.I.S. military command.
	While asserting Russian control of the fleet, Yeltsin said it would
be subordinate to the C.I.S. commander-in-chief.
	C.I.S. Defense Minister Yevgeny Shaposhnikov, who commands the joint
military and strategic forces, appeared before the Russian Congress of
People's Deputies earlier Tuesday to announce that Yeltsin planned to
take over the navy.
	The war of decrees over control of the huge fleet escalates a dispute
between the two most powerful former Soviet republics that threatens to
pull the Commonwealth apart.
	Both the Ukrainian and Russian decrees claim control of the entire
fleet in principle but say negotiations would be held on what part of it
might be transferred to the other republic or to the Commonwealth.
	The fleet, with some 350 ships and submarines, plus aircraft, is
based at Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula, which is Ukrainian but
which is also subject of a budding dispute between Russian and Ukraine.
	Yeltsin ordered the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Defense Ministry
to ``immediately start negotiations with Ukraine in order to determine
the conditions of basing the Black Sea fleet ships and vessels in
Ukrainian ports and transferring a part of it to Ukrainian armed forces.
''
	Russia claims the fleet is part of the former Soviet strategic forces
that C.I.S. republics agreed in December should remain under joint
control, while Ukraine contends the agreement on strategic forces only
covers nuclear weapons.
	The Military Council of top officers from the fleet said in a
statement reported by the independent Interfax news agency that they
remained under C.I.S. jurisdiction and were not authorized to transfer
any part of the fleet to Ukrainian control.
	The statement called for C.I.S. negotiations on the issue and said 
``interference in the fleet's everyday work and the decision to create
parallel structures may ruin control over it, spoil relations between
servicemen and destabilize the situation in the region.''
	Interfax and the Russian state news agency Itar-Tass said that the
Ukrainian air force command had ordered all aircraft from the Black Sea
fleet grounded Tuesday.
Xref: sparky clari.news.gov.state:35 clari.news.issues:23 clari.news.election:252 biz.clarinet.sample:1169