Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeni Primakov’s visit to Kyiv made no hoped for breakthroughs in solving a whole complex of problems. The only newsworthy aspect is that Leonid Kuchma told Mr. Primakov that he was submitting to Parliament the package of Black Sea Naval Accords signed in Kyiv last year. Otherwise both sides parted company with their respective positions unchanged.
At the closing press conference the Russian and Ukrainian Ministers did not radiate enthusiasm. In short, the results of the talks are as follows: Mr. Primakov promised to get the Duma to ratify the friendship treaty with Ukraine, assuming that the Verkhovna Rada will ratify the Black Sea Accords, this being a weighty argument in favor of the treaty. The issue of allocating premises for Ukraine abroad will be resolved only after the Ukrainian Parliament approves the zero option, doing this in what Mr. Primakov described as a “comprehensive manner,” making no mention of providing Kyiv with information on former Soviet assets.
Russia insists that the delimitation of frontiers on the Sea of Azov and Kerch Strait is unnecessary, because both Presidents recognized the sea as an inland body of water with regard to both countries. Ukraine would prefer having a border delimitation.
Finally, the Foreign Ministers failed to agree on the Ukrainian-NATO relationship. Mr. Primakov said he was led to understand by his Ukrainian counterpart that Ukraine would not joint the alliance. Tarasiuk replied with the tried clichО that “Ukraine seeks integration into European and Euroatlantic structures.”
NSDC Secretary Volodymyr Horbulin said after talking to Yevgeni Primakov that both countries had different approaches to European security, otherwise he insisted that there are no differences between Ukraine and Russia, except that on some issues there “are differences in approach.”
One thing is clear: there was no headway in the Ukrainian-Russian relationship, and it was not Ukraine’s fault.






