From: clarinews@clarinet.com (ROMA IHNATOWYCZ)
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
Subject: Ukraine steps up war of words with Russia over Black Sea fleet
Keywords: international, non-usa government, government, navy, military,
	war & peace, social issues, politics
Date: 8 Apr 92 22:00:10 GMT
Followup-To: biz.clarinet.sample
Location: soviet union
ACategory: international
Slugword: ukraine-russia
Priority: regular
Format: regular
ANPA: Wc: 461; Id: z5761; Sel: xxigf; Adate: 4-8-6ped
Codes: yigfrxx., yimnrsu., yixwrsu., yip.rsu.


	KIEV, Ukraine (UPI) -- The rift between Russia and Ukraine widened
Wednesday as Ukraine further asserted control of the Black Sea fleet and
President Leonid Kravchuk accused Russia of having ``territorial
pretensions.''
	The latest volleys in the war of words came after back-to-back
decrees by Kravchuk and Russian President Boris Yeltsin, each claiming
the fleet.
	Kravchuk also attacked Russian Vice President Alexander Rutskoi for
interfering in Ukrainian affairs and violating its territorial integrity
for suggesting, during a weekend visit to the Crimean-based fleet, that
the Crimean Peninsula might revert to Russian control.
	The Crimea figures into the conflict because the former Russian
territory -- made part of Ukraine in 1954 by Soviet President Nikita
Krushchev -- is home to most of the Black Sea fleet and has become the
subject of a budding new dispute between the two republics.
	``People say I should sit down with Yeltsin and look over the Crimean
question,'' Kravchuk told the Ukrainian Parliament. ``Why should I have
to sit down with Yeltsin?''
	Kravchuk accused Russia of ``territorial pretensions.''
	During heated parliamentary debate, Ukrainian leaders suggested that
all Black Sea navy ships at Ukrainian ports should be considered
Ukrainian.
	Kravchuk said Ukraine will decide which part of the fleet it will
keep and what will go to the Commonwealth of Independent States.
	Yeltsin's Tuesday decree asserts control over the entire fleet and
said talks will determine which portion Ukraine will be given. Kravchuk
issued a decree Monday asserting Ukrainian control of the fleet in
reaction to an earlier statement by Yeltsin warning that Russia would
take over the fleet if Ukraine acted unilaterally to assume control.
	Ukrainian Defense Minister Konstantin Morozov also announced the
appointment of a commander for the Ukrainian navy and told Parliament
that steps were being taken to organize Ukrainian control at fleet
headquarters in Sevastopol.
	Morozov also said anyone who refuses a Ukrainian oath of allegiance
would be viewed as a threat to national security and would not be
allowed to serve in the Ukrainian military.
	Yeltsin's decree ordered ships of the Black Sea navy to hoist the
historical Russian St. Andrew flag, dating back to the time of Czar
Peter the Great, as a symbol of Russian control. The independent
Interfax news agency reported that a search and rescue brigade became
the first division to carry out this part of the decree.
	The Russian state news agency Itar-Tass reported that Russian Foreign
Minister Andrei Kozyrev proposed holding talks with Ukraine over the
dispute.
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