Ukraine will not stand aside from the struggle against terrorism and is prepared to support it, President Kuchma declared several days after US and British forces attacked Afghanistan. Even though Ukraine will abstain from direct involvement in hostilities, it is prepared to provide Uzbekistan with military support, as a GUUAM member country, if it finds itself under Afghan attack. Mr. Kuchma noted that Kyiv has supplied Uzbekistan with armaments. “If need be, we are ready to make further deliveries,” he said.
The Ukrainian president believes that the start of the war between Afghanistan and the antiterrorist coalition will change the world. “I know that the world has changed since yesterday. I wouldn’t dare make any forecasts today, as different scenarios may be played out,” he pointed out.
“We [in Ukraine] are members of a global coalition combating terrorism, and we certainly cannot take any other stand. We are together with the international community and we are prepared to contribute in the struggle against terrorism,” declared Ukrainian Foreign Minister Anatoly Zlenko, addressing journalists in Kyiv on Monday October 8.
He said he was profoundly confident that “those begetting, supporting, and housing terrorists must be punished.”
The Ukrainian foreign minister pointed out that it was important to make every effort to “end the military action and proceed to use exclusively diplomatic means, pulling economic and humanitarian levers to find a way out of this global crisis.”
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry responded to the hostilities in Afghanistan by placing a task force headed by the chief of operations and deputies to the chief of the general staff on 24-hour alert. In addition, The Day was told by the Defense Ministry press center yesterday that the nation’s armed forces are making every effort to secure allied air passage over Ukraine. A coordinated action plan has been worked out jointly with the Ukrainian foreign and transport ministries, allocating airfields in case of emergency landing.
Although the US Defense Department had forwarded no official requests concerning air passage over Ukraine until 10 a.m., October 8, arrangements have been made for the nation’s air force and defense reinforcements to secure air passage.
The Day was told by the press center of the State Border Protection Committee that the border guard troops have been alerted since the start of hostilities in Afghanistan to forestall a possible increase in illegal immigration. At the same time, Viktor Sydorenko, head of the Foreign Ministry’s press service, says that “no additional security arrangements are reported to have been made as of yesterday.”
