"HISTORIC" EXERCISE COMPLETED IN UKRAINE.

The Ukrainian-British-Polish paratroop exercise Cossack Steppe-97, which began on September 13 at Shiroky Lan training range in Mikolayiv region, officially closed yesterday. Defense Ministers Oleksandr Kuzmuk, George Robertson, and Stanislaw Dobrzansky watched the culminating phase in which a tripartite paratroop battalion performed a landing operation, while a Ukrainian mechanized regiment supported by fighter-bombers was assaulting a hypothetical common enemy. Robertson called the exercise "historic," and Dobrzansky made clear Poland’s own interest in Ukraine’s security. Poland and Ukraine are well along in forming a joint battalion with British assistance.

Kuzmuk described Ukraine as a neutral nation that has made a "clear-cut choice to integrate into Europe." The three ministers had previously conferred aboard the Ukrainian navy’s flagship Hetman Sahaydachny in Sevastopol and then aboard the British frigate Campbelltown, anchored in Odessa. Aboard the Campbelltown, Rear Adm. Peter Franklin was cited as stating Britain’s interest in holding joint exercises with the Ukrainian navy. (Ukrainian agencies, September 18-19)

Brawl in the Armenian Parliament.