President appeals for “end to speculations”

President Leonid Kuchma stated that “under no circumstances” he is going to “play the game of prolonging my authority or, even more so, postponing the elections... My last task is to guarantee that the (presidential) elections be held openly and in accordance with the Constitution,” the head of the state said in a July 10 interview by Kyiv journalists. Leonid Kuchma stressed that the future president will be elected by people, not those in power. “The candidate should be nominated by life itself, which the people would support,” he added. Ukraine’s president called for “an end to speculations” in the parliament on the president’s bill, On the Constitutional Reform, and giving up “any suspicions that the president is going to extend his term.” As the president put it, his bill gives no legal basis for this.

Answering a question from Interfax-Ukraine, Pres. Kuchma said that he is in no hurry to appoint a new secretary of the National Security and Defense Council to replace Yevhen Marchuk, who was appointed defense minister of Ukraine on June 25. The head of state remarked that the NSDC continues to function and recalled that on June 27 Ihor Smeshko was appointed NSDC First Deputy Secretary. “People are working there,” the president said.

The same day it became known that the president has signed a bill adopted by Verkhovna Rada on June 19, which envisions broadening the authorities of the Defense Ministry on issues of international cooperation as well as cooperation with other nations’ institutions and international organizations. This document also contains amendments to the laws, On the Defense of Ukraine and On the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It will take effect starting from its day of publication, according to the presidential press service. According to the amendments to the law On Defense, the Defense Ministry is empowered to develop international cooperation not only in the military and technological spheres but also in military-political and military-civilian relations.

The ministry will be able to cooperate not only with corresponding state institutions of other countries but with any state organs or international organizations.

The law provides that the Ukraine’s Armed Forces General Headquarters will maintain contacts with armed forces of other countries, take part in military-political and military-technical cooperation, as well as secure the preparation for and participation in the international peacemaking operations by the Ukrainian military. The Defense Ministry was granted a right to consider appeals and receive petitioners on the issues belonging to its competence.

Corresponding amendments were also made to the law On the Armed Forces of Ukraine.