| Moscow is seriously concerned that Ukraine will henceforth, if necessary, make its territory available for NATO operations, without the consent of the Russian side. Let us recall that on March 17, the Ukrainian parliament (Rada) ratified a memorandum of understanding between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and NATO headquarters on support for Alliance operations. This weekend, the Ukrainians' decision received a harsh reaction from Moscow. It does not correspond to the spirit of “Article 6 of the Great Treaty” on friendship and cooperation between Ukraine and Russia, which stipulates that “neither party will allow the use of its territory to the detriment of the security of the other party,” VN noted in the Russian Foreign Ministry. On Smolensk Square they draw attention with alarm to the fact that “the memorandum declares Ukraine’s support for any NATO operations, including without the sanction of the UN Security Council.”
The memorandum will come into force after it is signed by Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. In accordance with the controversial document, NATO military units, as well as aircraft, tanks and ships, are allowed rapid access to the territory of Ukraine. The country undertakes to provide the Alliance with paid technical, information and medical assistance during military operations and NATO exercises under the Partnership for Peace agreement.
In Kyiv they are trying to explain that the worries of their Russian neighbor are in vain. “The memorandum does not entail any serious consequences for Russia,” Ukrainian political scientist Andrei Ermolaev told VN. - Purely declarative steps towards cooperation with NATO are due to the fact that Ukraine is trying to destroy the negativity that has developed around our country in the West. Therefore, a number of decisions of Kyiv - sending a Ukrainian battalion to Iraq, ratifying the same memorandum with NATO - have a clearly expressed diplomatic character." "The degree of freedom of Kyiv is quite high," the political scientist believes, "after all, Ukraine did not sign the military-political Tashkent Agreement CIS countries in the early 90s. And cooperation between Ukraine and NATO is not new for Russia - joint exercises with the Alliance are regularly held in Ukraine.”
Nevertheless, Mr. Ermolaev admitted that “the lack of agreement within the framework of the Great Treaty is a certain incorrectness.” The Ukrainian political scientist suggests that Kyiv, by ratifying the memorandum with NATO, was counting on “the emergence of space for new bargaining with both Moscow and Brussels, where NATO headquarters is located.” It seems to Mr. Ermolaev that “the statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry is a signal to the beginning of these auctions." Svetlana STEPANENKO, Kyiv, Ivan GORBUNOV
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