Russia’s Tragedy Must Serve to Unite Ukrainians

The struggle against terrorism will be a major point on the agenda of the CIS summit scheduled for September 15-17 in Austria, said Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma (currently Chairman of the CIS Council of Heads of State) on September 17, while he was in the Crimea, inspecting the 47th Special Force Regiment of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry’s troops deployed in the town of Krasnokamianka. He went on to say, “The whole world is learning from the recent tragic events in Russia. And so are we,” reports Interfax Ukraine, quoting the president’s press service. According to the Ukrainian leader, the first lesson that Ukraine should learn is that “Russia’s tragedy must serve to bring Ukrainians closer together... today, as never before, history calls for Ukrainian national unity... this tragic experience proves that countries with unstable domestic political situations, with their resistance to external threats weakened by internal squabbles, are the most likely targets of all those adventurers and fighters from the notorious ‘hidden front of terrorism.’” President Kuchma stressed that terrorism and violence cannot be justified anywhere, under any circumstances, “no matter what goals are pursued by those killing children, human beings only starting on their life paths.” Ukraine shares the grief of all those who lost beloved family members during the terrorist act in the North Ossetian town of Beslan.”

President Kuchma further stressed the need to achieve domestic political accord and mentioned the presidential campaign in Ukraine. He said he was alarmed by efforts to increase tensions during the campaign, yet declared that there would be no “uprisings and revolutions,” and that the elections would take place on schedule, and in a fair and transparent way: “All of us must make every effort to protect the greatest gain over the past years-stability; civic, inter-confessional, and interethnic peace and accord-against any encroachments, lest chaos and events take an uncontrollable course.” President Leonid Kuchma compared certain political courses calling for a revolt to terrorist threats: “Do you really think that after having secured a quiet and secure way of life for almost 50 million fellow Ukrainians over the past 13 years, at the cost of unbelievable efforts, we will allow you to lay waste to all this?” He added that the government would do everything it has to in order to ensure the peace and security of their citizens and the whole country.

During his September 7 trip President Kuchma announced that 200 soldiers have been trimmed from Ukraine’s peacekeeping contingent in Iraq, in keeping with the regular September-October rotation schedule. When asked by journalists about the contingent’s term of deployment in Iraq, the president stressed, “We will not leave Iraq by running away, and everybody must be aware of this.” Leonid Kuchma agreed with Premier Viktor Yanukovych, who during his visit to Iraq said that the Ukrainian contingent should stay there until the domestic situation is finally stabilized and elections held. “We will peacefully leave Iraq when that country has an absolutely legitimate government,” stated the Ukrainian president, adding that the Ukrainian troops had been withdrawn from the Iranian-Iraqi frontier, which, in his own words, was one of the worst hotbeds in Iraq. Mr. Kuchma added that Ukrainian forces were withdrawing from the vicinity of Baghdad. “Our troops are pulling out and will be concentrated in a single spot, so the issue of security will be that much easier to solve,” he said and called for a “gradual” solution to the problem.