Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma transferred to Parliament for consideration a bill on ratifying three agreements, which define the conditions, parameters, and financial details of stationing the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine.
The Black Sea Fleet is currently the largest Russian military group stationed outside the Russian Federation. According to agreements, the number of servicemen has been fixed at 25,000 people. The Fleet has 388 ships, 106 aircraft, and a number of cannons and armored cars. Russia may use infrastructure on Ukrainian territory and the five largest Sevastopol bays for 20 years, and the agreement can be extended. There seems to be no way to avoid it – Russian naval commanders have already announced that there is no money in the budget to finance construction of the new main base in Novorosiysk. Negotiations in Vienna on a future agreement on troop deployment in Europe is to define what kind of arm, how many and where the East Central European countries can station their troops after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and in with new countries joining NATO is also an important factor. Ukraine wants the agreement to define that Russian troops are stationed in Crimea on temporary basis, but this question has not been yet solved.
It is hardly worthwhile to expect that the Ukrainian Parliament will begin its work after vacation with ratification of agreements on the Black Sea Fleet. The Russian Duma is in no hurry to take such a step either. In addition, they have not dealt with the general political agreement between Ukraine and Russia. It is possible that the Duma may issue additional conditions regarding contents of the agreement on the Black Sea Fleet.







