Ukraine Wants Soldiers Returned
KIEV, Soviet Union — The Ukraine stepped up its defiance of Moscow on Monday and demanded the return of all Ukrainians doing national service in the Soviet army.
The republic’s Parliament passed a resolution calling on the Soviet Defense Ministry to withdraw all enlisted Ukrainian soldiers from troubled areas such as Kirghizia, Azerbaijan and Armenia by Oct. 1.
Those serving in other Soviet republics should be returned to the Ukraine by Dec. 1, it added.
“I see this as a first step toward formation of national armed forces, a Ukrainian army,” Ivan Drach, leader of the Rukh nationalist group, told reporters. “Our sons should not be involved in these ethnic conflicts. Sovereignty (for the Ukraine) is nothing but a piece of paper if the country does not have its own armed forces,” he added.
The resolution, affecting a large proportion of the Soviet army of 4,258,000, was approved by 282 to 31 votes in the legislature, where Communist deputies are in the majority.
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