UKRAINE COMPLYING WITH CFE.

Ukraine´s Defense Ministry has announced that it will have completed by October 31 the destruction of tanks on its territory which exceed the ceilings mandated by the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE). The ministry said that the November deadline will find Ukraine also in compliance with CFE quotas on armored vehicles, heavy artillery, tactical aviation, and combat helicopters. Some uncertainties persist regarding the combat hardware of Russia´s 126th coastal defense division and 810th marine brigade, both based in Crimea, which are the last Russian land forces on Ukrainian territory. (14)

Kiev´s compliance with CFE contrasts with Moscow´s repudiation of the treaty, and may eventually increase Ukraine´s sense of vulnerability if Russia retains a disproportionate superiority in the treaty-limited categories. Ukraine´s commitments stem from the 1990 CFE Treaty which set quotas for various regions of the then-USSR, and from the May 1992 Tashkent agreement in which the successor countries including Russia apportioned the ex-USSR´s CFE quotas among themselves and which were incorporated into the original CFE Treaty.

Fighting in Tajikistan.