UKRAINE-WEST MILITARY COOPERATION PROCEEDS APACE.

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has announced that a German military delegation is in Kiev to plan the first-ever German-Ukrainian military staff exercises, to be held in March near Odessa and that a US military delegation is in Lviv to plan the participation of Ukrainian units stationed there in joint exercises next year in Kansas. From November 20 to 24, Ukraine’s naval flagship, the Hetman Sahaydachny joined ships of NATO countries in the Classic-95 naval maneuvers off Italy’s La Spezia naval base. In the Bosnia peacekeeping operation, Ukrainian defense minister Valery Shmarov says he plans to subordinate the Ukrainian battalion directly to French command, as part of "searching for a mechanism of cooperation with NATO member nations" which would be consistent with Ukraine’s non-bloc status. (13)

In 1995 Ukraine led the East European countries in terms of joint military exercises with the West, both under NATO auspices and bilaterally with the USA. It hosted US ships for joint maneuvers off Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and US land units exercising with Ukrainian units in the Mykolayiv, Lviv, and Carpathian regions. British prime minister John Major suggested Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma in London yesterday that closer cooperation with NATO was the best antidote to Ukraine’s worries about becoming a buffer between an enlarged NATO and Russia. (14)

Moldova Issues Autonomy Plan for Transdniester.