Declaring that 'the Slavic brotherhood is sacred and inviolable,' Russian President Boris Yeltsin joined his Ukrainian counterpart Leonid Kuchma Saturday May 31 in signing a pact designed to end years of squabbling between the two historically linked nations. More than half a decade after Ukraine gained independence from Moscow, Yeltsin visited Kuchma in Kyiv to sign a Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership. The accord aims to improve often tense relations between the two most populous former Soviet republics. 'I am certain that this day will remain forever in the annals of our relations,' Yeltsin said at the signing ceremony. 'A new Russia and a new, modern Ukraine have signed a fundamental document. It is signed not only by the will of the presidents, but first of all at the will of the people.' More than the Ukrainian people, it is their leaders who waited for Yeltsin to make his first official visit to Kyiv and sign the treaty, which marks Russian acceptance of Ukraine's territorial integrity and its sovereignty over the mostly ethnic Russian Crimean Peninsula. Yeltsin had postponed his visit six times, citing the dispute over the former Soviet Black Sea Fleet and particularly the status of its main base, the Crimean port of Sevastopol, which became part of an independent Ukraine when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The prime ministers of Russia and Ukraine paved the way for the friendship pact last Wednesday when they signed a packet of agreements under which Russia will rent much of Sevastopol for at least 20 years. The deal has angered ethnic Russians in the port and nationalists in both countries. Former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev ceded Crimea in 1954 to Ukraine, then a Soviet republic. The balmy peninsula is populated mostly by ethnic Russians, and many in Russia and in Crimea believe it should revert to Kremlin rule. 'Sevastopol is a Russian city, and it will be Russian regardless of the decisions taken,' Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said Saturday, according to the Interfax news agency. 'Sooner or later, this view will become a reality,' the popular mayor added. Dissatisfaction with the fleet deal could jeopardize ratification of the friendship pact in the Russian and Ukrainian parliaments. Yeltsin and Kuchma expressed confidence that lawmakers will ratify the treaty, a symbolic step toward closer relations. Yeltsin drew on the intertwined histories of Ukraine and Russia, saying, 'Nobody can erase from the memory of our peoples our common history, its lessons. Together during the war we drove the enemy from the walls of Moscow and Kyiv.' Russia traces its roots to the Kyivan Rus state in the 9th century, based in what is now the Ukrainian capital. For the past three centuries, Ukraine has been under Russian domination, including its seven-decade stint as a Soviet republic. Yeltsin said Russian officials 'must make relations with Ukraine the priority of priorities.' He urged them to 'wake up and think, what have you done for Ukraine?' The long-delayed friendship treaty came two days after Ukraine initialed a special partnership deal with NATO. Russia opposes NATO's imminent eastward expansion, and Yeltsin has said he will seek to persuade the 'brotherly' Eastern Orthodox nation not to join the alliance. Kuchma stressed that Russia is 'a priority direction in our foreign policy' and that 'Ukraine considers Ukrainian-Russian relations a most important aspect of European security.' He said relations have enjoyed a 'noticeable improvement' lately. In addition to what they called 'the big treaty,' the presidents signed a declaration Kuchma said should end 'the so-called problem of Sevastopol.' He said Russia and Ukraine will both provide financial aid to pensioners and needy residents of the port. The declaration was aimed to soothe the scores of mostly elderly Sevastopol residents who demonstrated Friday against the Black Sea Fleet agreements and the friendship treaty, holding banners calling for the return of the city to Russian rule. The presidents also signed a statement pledging space cooperation, including plans to set up a joint space research center in the Crimean city of Yevpatoria. Yeltsin and Kuchma warmly embraced each other at the airport before the Russian president's departure from Kyiv. Yeltsin returned to Moscow Saturday evening.
