UKRAINE DENIES ARMS DEALS WITH LIBYA.

Ukrainian deputy foreign minister Kostyantin Hryshchenko yesterday dismissed as "rubbish" a story carried by the Washington Times that cited CIA sources as alleging that Ukraine had reached a deal to sell missiles and provide naval maintenance services to Libya. (see Monitor, December 10). Hryshchenko added that "it is difficult to believe that the high-class CIA specialists could have prepared such an illiterate report." Hryshchenko and Foreign Ministry spokesman Yury Serhiev said that the charges aired via the article sought to "discredit Ukraine in the eyes of its strategic partner" — the U.S. — and that the charges also seemed timed to this week’s opening in Vienna of a conference on dual-purpose technology export controls. Hryshchenko also emphasized that the "U.S. government has not expressed any doubt or lack of confidence in Ukraine’s compliance with the rules on nuclear and missile technology exports" after the publication of a similar story in June. (Interfax-Ukraine, December 9 and 10)

Crimean Parliament Approves Constitution — with Reservations.