United Press International,
WASHINGTON: Russian defense experts warned this week that Ukraine could retaliate against a major price hike on their Russian gas imports by letting the United States use its early warning radar bases for ballistic missile defense.
The Russian military establishment is taking very seriously the possibility that strongly pro-American Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko could dramatically tilt the balance of global strategic power by giving the United States an advance radar base in the historic former Russian naval fortress of Sevastopol on the Black Sea.
An article published in the Moscow newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta Monday cited several military sources indicating that Ukraine was willing to give U.S. experts access to its early-warning radar facilities in Sevastopol and Mukachevo in western Ukraine. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine has permitted Russia the sole use of the old Soviet facilities in both centers.
Several Ukrainian sources told the official RIA Novosti news agency that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Yushchenko already discussed this issue during their meeting in Kiev Dec. 6.
Col. Gen. Volter Kraskovsky, commander of Russia's missile defense troops from 1986 to 1991, told RIA Novosti that the Ukrainian-based radars could certainly be used as part of extended U.S. ABM warning systems.
Kraskovsky said U.S. access to the Sevastopol and Mukachevo radars could significantly damage Russia's missile defenses in the direction of central and southern Europe, and towards the Mediterranean.
Russia is raising the price of its natural gas exports to Ukraine from the current level of $50 per 1,000 cubic meters to the price it charges European Union nations, $160 per 1,000 cubic meters.
To Read Full Article Click Here
