| Ukrainians can leave Iraq after June 30 Ukraine may follow the example of Spain and withdraw its peacekeeping contingent from Iraq. Yesterday this issue was discussed at a closed meeting of the Rada with the participation of Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Vladimir Radchenko, Minister of Defense Yevgeny Marchuk and First Deputy Head of the Security Service Yuri Zemlyansky.
President Leonid Kuchma was absent, but after the meeting Yevgeny Marchuk said that the question of the withdrawal of the Ukrainian military contingent from Iraq “is a political issue, and it is not decided by the military.” “The Ukrainian contingent will definitely be withdrawn from Iraq,” the defense minister believes. “But it must be withdrawn in an organized manner so that it does not look like an escape.”
Yesterday the Rada did not support any of the five resolutions on the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. The presidential administration and the pro-presidential majority in parliament consider it possible to withdraw Ukrainian peacekeepers on June 30, the day of the transfer of power in the country to the Iraqi interim government. However, if the UN adopts a corresponding resolution after June 30 and grants peacekeeping status to the troops in Iraq, the Ukrainians may remain.
In unstable Iraq, the American and Polish command is trying to send Ukrainians to areas of active combat operations. As Vladimir Radchenko noted, after the battle with the rebels in Al-Kut, Ukraine, against its will, became one of the parties to the conflict. Let us recall that on April 6, the commander of the Ukrainian brigade ordered the withdrawal of military personnel from the city of Al-Kut, concluding that their lives were in danger. The Americans have already been informed that Ukrainian legislation allows the contingent to perform only “peacekeeping functions”; their use in “offensive or combat operations has no prospects.”
The hasty dispatch of Ukrainian peacekeepers to the region was a mistake, the first President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk said yesterday; in particular, the Ukrainians never received the promised multimillion-dollar contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq. However, according to the ex-president, “Ukraine cannot make another mistake,” since the departure of the Ukrainians could lead to the outbreak of a civil war and the collapse of Iraq. “If our fourth largest contingent leaves, the rest of the countries will run after us,” Georgy Kryuchkov, head of the Rada Committee on National Security and Defense, told VN. According to Mr. Radchenko, a significant reduction in the contingent is also not an option, since this will demonstrate the inconsistency of Ukraine. Svetlana STEPANENKO, Kyiv |
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