Fighting Terrorism in Ukrainian Sky

Two planes of the US Air Force taking part in the anti-terrorist operation in Afghanistan crossed Ukraine’s air space in the first days of the new year. In general, during the term of conducting the anti-terrorist operation in Afghanistan starting on October 9, 2001, 3795 planes of the US Air Force have crossed Ukraine’s air space, including 2018 military transport ones and 1687 refuellers, Interfax Ukraine was told at the Defense Ministry’s press service. As usual, according to the previously achieved agreement, in case of force majeure Kulbakyno and Lviv airports were prepared to accept the American planes. Seventy Illegal Immigrants in One Apartment

57 men and 13 women from China were discovered by law enforcement servicemen in a three-room apartment in one of Kyiv districts, reports Interfax Ukraine citing the Public Relations Center at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. The owner of the apartment was visiting Russia at that time. A contract was found on the premises on leasing the apartment to a citizen of China, student of a Kyiv institute. However, there were no state bodies’ signatures or seals on the contract. As it was established by militia, illegal immigrants were coming to Kyiv from Beijing via Moscow. They arrived at nights, in small parties from ten to fifteen persons each. Every Chinese paid from $7000 to 10,000 for his/her trip. Today all illegal migrants are kept at the receiving and distribution center. Law enforcement institutions are studying the exact way of their crossing Ukraine’s state border and the purpose of their arrival to our country. Oil Pipeline of Political Interest

“We corroborate Polish government’s interest in this project,” Prime Minister of Poland Leszek Miller stated last Wednesday in Warsaw after negotiations with Ukrainian delegation headed by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. The Polish side believes that the project should be primarily a commercial one and an international consortium is to be created, “which will take care of completing the construction [of the pipeline],” Mr. Miller observed. Polish prime minister mentioned “achieving an agreement on the amount of oil and its recipients” as the third “key issue.” In his words, at present negotiations are underway between Ukraine and Poland precisely on these issues.

At the end of 2002 the PricewaterhouseCooper Company was appointed project developer on commercializing the Odesa-Brody-Gdansk oil transporting system by the results of the international tender. It will be assisted in this by the ChannOil consulting company. In the words of head of the Ukrtransnafta Company Oleksandr Todiychuk, this will increase potential investor’s trust for the project. As Mr. Yanukovych pointed out, big job is to be done by Ukraine and Poland on this project. “The main thing is that we have taken a political decision to move on,” he stressed.