Ukraine's Kuchma on  Revision of  Nuclear-Free Status  
Moscow Interfax 1247 GMT 26 Mar 99 

[FBIS Transcribed Text] Kiev, 26 Mar (Interfax-Ukraine) -- Ukrainian 
President Leonid Kuchma has said he opposes the parliament's instruction 
to the government to prepare drafts on denouncing Ukraine's nuclear-free 
status. "Some politicians, primarily in parliament, either do not 
understand or do not want to understand the processes under way in the 
world, in Europe, and especially in Ukraine. Some do it with a lot of 
cynicism, others lack understanding, and a third [group] needs help in 
understanding this," Kuchma said at a press conference in a training 
center for interior troops outside Kiev. Kuchma said that "as a 
specialist in this sphere," he knows that Ukraine cannot maintain nuclear 
weapons on its own. This was the main reason for why the former Ukrainian 
leadership renounced the nuclear status, he said. The service life of 
Ukraine's nuclear warheads had expired by that time, he said. Moreover, 
Russia and the United States had insisted that the number of countries in 
the nuclear club was not to exceed five. Unfortunately, things turned out 
differently, Kuchma said. 

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