 The Ukrainian Observer Wire |
120-second look at trends and prognosis impacting the region
Moscow Reaches Energy Accord With Kyiv: Russia's gas giant Gazprom has found a way to avoid $700 million in taxes as it collects $1.4 billion in debt from Ukraine.
Ukraine has ended a three-year argument with the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom, but the solution may cost the Russian budget $700 million.
So far, Moscow appears willing to forgo an enormous amount of budget revenue in order to close the books on one of the longest-running disputes in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), as it consolidates control over the region's gas supplies.
In late April, officials announced that the Ukrainian state petroleum company Naftogaz Ukrainy had agreed with Gazprom to pay $1.4 billion in debt for Russian gas with eurobonds.
Chernobyl's reactor in danger of collapsing: According to Russia's atomic energy minister, the concrete-and-steel sarcophagus containing the damaged Chernobyl nuclear reactor in Ukraine is in danger of collapsing.
"There may come a moment when the roof can no longer hold," Alexander Rumyantsev said in Moscow.
Chernobyl was the site of the world's worst nuclear accident when a reactor exploded April 26, 1986, spewing radiation across a vast swathe of then-Soviet Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Western Europe.
Rumyantsev said the shell over the damaged reactor was constructed hastily "under the most difficult" conditions and has gaps that threaten to leak radiation. He also doubted that Ukrainian officials were carrying out the necessary scientific monitoring of the site.
International donors have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to build a new shelter but construction is not expected to start before next year.
Ukraine, Georgia - "key players" in regional security: According to Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine and Georgia claim to play the key role in the local security issues.
While addressing the international conference titled "Ukraine and Georgia in the process of forming a new international security system: problems and prospects", President Kuchma said that the two countries must draw the attention of the world leaders and centers of influence to their key role in regional security.
The real international significance of such countries as Georgia and Ukraine playing the key role in single regions grows in the epoch of globalization as well as the significance of world influence centers.
Ukraine and Georgia shared foreign policy priorities: integration with the European and Euro-Atlantic structures, bilateral advance of regional co-operation and deepening relations with neighboring states.
Co-operation between Ukraine and Georgia within the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Co-operation and the CIS is "an important factor", according to the Ukrainian leader.
Pascual states improvement of Ukraine-U.S. relations: U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual has stated improvement of relations between the two countries.
It is really a kind of improvement in relations, and both sides are striving for their further development, Pascual said in an interview with the Holos Ukrainy newspaper recently.
He added that in December last year he offered a so-called strategy of small steps to go forward with interaction and defining concrete possibilities for mutually beneficial settlement of several issues. This in its turn would open the doors for further progress, the diplomat added.
Ukraine content over recent EU negotiations: Ukraine may have edged forward with its current negotiations with the EU to become a full member in the future.
Ukrainian officials believe that recent EU summit in Athens supported Kyiv's bid for European integration. An establishment of a single economic area with Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia should not "move Ukraine from Europe", they argue.
According to the Ukrainian minister responsible for European integration, Alexandr Chaliy, Ukraine "saw confirmation of right" for European integration.
The Athens summit appeared to be a defeat for all those internal forces who wanted to wreck Ukraine's chance for EU integration.
After the European Commission's recent proposal to set up a special relationship with Ukraine as well as other countries of the region after EU enlargement, many Ukrainian diplomats responded by saying that it was not a sufficient level of co-operation - as Brussels did not offer a prospect for membership to the ex-soviet republic.
The World Bank To Help Ukraine Fight Tuberculosis and AIDS:
The World Bank signed a credit agreement with Ukraine on a US$60 million loan to help the former Soviet republic combat the rapid spread of tuberculosis and AIDS.
The document was signed recently in Washington by Luca Barbone, World Bank regional director for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, and Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, Kostiantyn Hryshchenko.
The money will help the cash-strapped Ukrainian government apply a comprehensive prevention, diagnosis and epidemic control program to fight tuberculosis and AIDS.
Officials have registered about 50,000 cases of HIV in Ukraine, and international AIDS experts have warned that the number of cases in the country could rise above 1.4 million by 2010 if no effective measures are taken.
3 About 670,000 people are now infected with tuberculosis, health officials say. The death rate from tuberculosis has nearly tripled over the last decade.
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More in the section:
Expat Question of the Month
"The Readers' Question(s) from April'03 were
NOTICES, ANNOUNCEMENTS, EVENTS AND HAPPENINGS
Read also previous issue' articles:
Readers' Forum
Samuel Adams Redux
Kyiv's Ultimate Traffic Cop
Two Essays on Kyiv
Two expatriates share their impressions of the capital
Ukrainian Integration into Israeli Society
Headed to Ukraine? Expect a miracle!
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