UKRAINE DEFENDS MOLDOVA’S INTERESTS ON THE EVE OF KREMLIN MEETING.

The Kremlin announced yesterday that Presidents Boris Yeltsin of Russia, Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine, and Petru Lucinschi of Moldova, together with Transdniester leader Igor Smirnov and an OSCE representative, will meet on May 8 in the Kremlin to sign a memorandum on the principles of settling the Transdniester conflict. (Itar-Tass, May 5) Kuchma’s special envoy to those negotiations, Yevhen Levitsky, stated yesterday that Ukraine will adhere to its own interpretation of some of the memorandum’s provisions. It will insist on the primacy of international law over any other understandings; on OSCE, rather than CIS, auspices for the negotiations and the eventual settlement; on a time-limited mandate for Russian "peacekeeping" troops; and on working out a clear mechanism to enable the OSCE and Ukraine to act as coguarantors of the political settlement. (Interfax-Ukraine, May 5) Moldova had sought to introduce these clarifications in the memorandum, but failed owing to Transdniester and Moscow resistance. The OSCE (except Russia) shares Kiev’s views.

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