Ukraine President Yushchenko rejects US anti-missile system

dpa German Press Agency Published: Thursday April 12, 2007

Kiev- Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko on Thursday
rejected any discussion of deployment of US anti-missile systems to
his country, ending months of waffling by leaders of the former
Soviet republic.
The Ukrainian politician who is generally liked in Washington for
his support of democratic government and market reform, Yushchenko
made clear his government had no intention of assisting the US in a
plan to build a net of anti-missile systems in selected East European
countries.

"No, we have never discussed that question, and we have no
intention of discussing that question," Yushchenko told reporters at
a briefing in Kiev.

In the months following the announcement about the initiative by
the US, officials from Urkraine's foreign defence ministry avoided
committing themselves on the missile plan.

Yushchenko's remarks came less than a day after US Pentagon
official Brian Green, in testimony to the US Senate named fifteen
European nations that the US might consider as bases for its anti-
missile network, among them Ukraine.

The US aims to station the missiles by 2013 to counter a
potential threat from Iran. Poland and the Czech Republic have
supported the idea.

Ukraine's government traditionally tries to align itself between
Europe and Russia, often failing to please either. The Kremlin has
roundly criticised the US plan as unnecessary and capable of
threatening the regional nuclear balance.

Though considered an ally of the US and married to a former US
citizen, Yushchenko has in the past disappointed Washington, most
recently in 2005 when he pulled a Ukrainian infantry brigade
supporting US operations out of Iraq, on the grounds that Ukrainian
soldiers had no place in a foreign war.

© 2006 - dpa German Press Agency

Comment Here