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Protests against U.S. in Ukraine

Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW: The Parliament of Ukraine's pro-Russian Crimean Peninsula has declared the autonomy a NATO-free territory as week-long anti-American protests in the region gathered momentum.

The Supreme Soviet of Crimea voted 61 to nil on Tuesday to endorse a "NATO-free" status for the peninsula, where ethnic Russians account for a majority and where the Russian Black Sea fleet is based.

Parliament also denounced as unconstitutional the presence of 260 U.S. Marine reservists in Crimea and called for the cancellation of the U.S.-Ukrainian Sea Breeze military exercise next month which the Marines were to prepare.

As deputies debated the measure, hundreds of anti-American demonstrators rallied outside waving Communist and Russian flags and holding "Yankee go home" and "No NATO in Crimea" slogans.

Protests broke out on May 28, when a U.S. Navy transport brought equipment to refurbish the military training facility in Crimea which is to be used in the mid-July training exercise involving U.S. and other NATO members.

Demonstrators blocked the equipment at the port and sealed off a Ukrainian Defence Ministry health resort where the Marines were put up.

The row over the U.S. Marines reflected strong anti-NATO feelings in Ukraine. President Viktor Yushchenko, catapulted to power by the pro-Western "orange revolution" in 2004, has made winning early NATO membership for Ukraine his top foreign policy priority. However, recent opinion polls showed that only 20 per cent of Ukrainians support joining NATO.

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