If Pres Yushchenko gives express order to bar Russian ships from returning to Sevastopol, this order can be executed, ex-Defense Minister Hrytsenko claims

August13200816:26

True, Ukraine has supplied weapons and military equipment to Georgia – on legal grounds and in compliance with international standards. As far as I know, we sold to Georgia tanks, AA missiles, and small arms. I am not sure the AA missiles have been commissioned. We did not sell Georgia C-200 AA missiles and Hrad missile launchers, as wrongly claimed by some media outlets. Only government agencies, Ukrspetsexport and Ukraine’s state service for export control, involved in the arms sales can provide complete information on the sales, Hrytsenko said.

“At the time of the flare-up, 21 Ukrainian servicemen were completing their short-term training in Georgia’s mountaineering center planned in 2007. With only 4 days left, the servicemen were evacuated back to Ukraine for reasons of safety. According to Ukraine DM, there were 2 Ukrainian military observers and an attachй in Ukraine’s embassy in Tbilisi,” Anatoly Hrytsenko said.

The former DM is supportive of Pres Yushchenko’s decision to render humanitarian support to Georgia.

As stressed by Anatoly Hrytsenko, “it is clear that Ukraine cannot bar BSF vessels to return to its base in Sevastopol. No doubt, the Foreign Ministry has agreed its statement [to ban the return of ships to Sevastopol] with the president. If the latter issues a clear command to enforce the ban and shows readiness to accept the responsibility for the order, it will be fulfilled. However, judging by FM and presidential secretariat comments, I can see that the statement was viewed as rash. If Ukraine wants its statements heard and respected, we must speak only about those things that can be realized, Hrytsenko added.

Answering a question whether the Ossetian scenario can be repeated in Crimea, Anatoly Hrytsenko told this to ZIK : “We won’t allow anyone to play out this scenario!”

Comments

21:2606.09.08 Macaco
- In the Global scene I see smart countries, who can't stand each other while tied together all the way to the marrow of the bone , Those ties induces distrust and with that, a sense of uncertainty, which while historically founded, keep your countries two steps behind of the front line in the global economy. This is not about what Ukraine or Russia or any of the other countries in East Europe can do to engage in this global shopping center, or how fast to tilt toward West Europe. The trick is to go beyond the apparent discrepancies between each other and recognize your particularities, and the need to create together what I can see it can be an unparalleled jump forward. Too many experts think your part of the world lacks the traditional conditions to develop fast. It is like when you are 14 years old and on the way to school you find two elementary school boys fighting for a lollipop, something that doesn’t make any sense to you anymore. That is what cultural rivalries do, while others just see nonsense.
  They see authoritarian governments and rampant corruption in the state and in the economy. But I know there is corruption everywhere, not just in your countries, the practical think to do is learn to measure corruption as any other economic indicator, just this one inserting a negative influence in the economy. Then develop the internal public opinion toward the problem, layout a fence which over time will be move toward a point where everybody is safe and free unleash his potential.
  Your countries have the resources and ingenuity, depends of what you do with it, if you engage in being a final consumer of others goods, you sure will help to the global economy, not necessary yours, but you can amaze again everybody, just like the Germans were amazed with the tanks in the war, and many other examples. Just this time you need to set new industrial standards focusing in the comparative advantage of your resources, and import the best of the best to create those new concepts with which you always amaze.
  Those authoritative governments can do a lot of things to keep laying out new rules to fence corruption and ignite a stepped system toward that front line. It may not be completely western style at the beginning but it will reach a point when western societies will see the need to adapt new concepts in their own schemes, and that is what it will make us all better. My friends you are between the European Union, China and India, and seated in 1/3 of the world resources. Do you think I am wrong?
02:1526.08.08 Zap
- Ukrainians are funny morons...
10:0414.08.08 Lean Lion
- This dog too intended to BARK, because, it tries to join with the gang of other street dogs which called themselves as superpowers.
  But their powers are like "air bubbles" which itself be destroyed in a "swift blow".