KREMLIN VIEWS SEVASTOPOL AS RUSSIAN CITY.

Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin told a Moscow briefing that the Kremlin’s demand for exclusive basing rights in Sevastopol stems from the Russian "view of Sevastopol on a par with Moscow, Leningrad, and Volgograd [Stalingrad]. Too much Russian blood has been spilled for these cities." Boris Yeltsin will not visit Ukraine until Sevastopol’s status is defined, Chernomyrdin reaffirmed. Ukrainian deputy prime minister Vasyl Durdinets replied that Ukraine would never agree to the demand that its fleet be excluded from Sevastopol. (Itar-Tass, Interfax, April 12 & 13)

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