SEVASTOPOL, MAY 19 (AP) – Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his wife Naina arrived in Ukraine May 19 to rest on the Black Sea Crimean peninsula and have informal meetings with Ukrainian leader Leonid Kuchma.
An impressive array of officials including the Russian ambassador, Russia's Navy commander, the chiefs of the Ukrainian and Russian portions of the ex-Soviet Black Sea Fleet and Crimea's parliamentary speaker greeted Yeltsin at the Belbek military airport near Sevastopol.
Officials said Kuchma, who invited Yeltsin for the Crimean vacation, planned to meet with him over the weekend at a government rest home.
The Yeltsins will be spending their time at a Ukrainian presidential residence on Crimea's southern coast until May 30 and may have more meetings with Kuchma, they said.
Yeltsin has appeared in public only infrequently since resigning abruptly on Dec. 31, leaving his place to Vladimir Putin. But he traveled to the Holy Land to mark the Orthodox Christmas in January and is said to be planning other foreign trips.
