[25.06.03]

On June, 25 Yevgen Marchuk was appointed as Minister of Defence of Ukraine. Till now he was a secretary of Council of National Safety and Defense (CNSD).

Comment. Resignation of former Minister of Defence Volodymyr Shkidchenko is caused by slowly reformation and common faults in the Ukrainian army which were sharply criticized at CNSD meeting on situation in army (June, 20).

Experts do not consider, that change of minister will cause any changes of the Ukrainian military policy, which is defined not by minister, but personally by the President.

In particular, one predicts that Ukraine will still be an aktive member of co-operation with USA & NATO.

On June 22 37th Congress of Communist Party of Ukraine was held. Petro Symonenko was elected as its leader once again.

The vice-speaker of Ukrainian parliament Oleksandr Zinchenko asked for resignation from all posts, with which he held in Social-democratic party of Ukraine (united) (SDPU(o)). However, he remained a member of the party.

Comment. Experts do not consider resignation of Zinchenko as symptom of crisis in this influental party.

Presidents of Ukraine and Poland Leonid Kuchma and Alexandre Kwasnevski have met in Odessa (Ukraine) on June 23. Main themes: economic co-operation and Volyn’ problem (see report on June 7-13).

Ukraine’s Foreign Office is going to ask United Nations to recognize the events of 1932-33 years (famine in Ukraine, as a result of which was lost about 7 million person) a genocide against Ukrainian people.