UKRAINE: UKRAINIAN MILITARY OFFICIALS BLOW UP THE COUNTRY'S LAST SOVIET ERA NUCLEAR MISSILE SILO

Record ID: 648083

  • Title: UKRAINE: UKRAINIAN MILITARY OFFICIALS BLOW UP THE COUNTRY'S LAST SOVIET ERA NUCLEAR MISSILE SILO
  • Date: 30th October 2001
  • Summary: (U6) PERVOMAISK, UKRAINE (OCTOBER 30, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV UNITED STATES AND UKRAINIAN FLAGS 0.07 2. SLV VIEW OF THE NUCLEAR MISSILE SILO 0.12 3. MV U.S. AND UKRAINIAN OFFICIALS GATHERING NEAR PODIUM 0.17 4. SV TECHNICIANS MAKING LAST MINUTE CHECK-UP OF EQUIPMENT 0.29 5. WIDE OF PODIUM 0.32 6. CLOSE-UP OF CHILDREN THAT ARE TO TURN THE KEYS FOR EXPLOSION 0.36 7. GV U.S AND UKRAINIAN MILITARY DELEGATION WATCHING FROM PODIUM 0.40 8. GV EXPLOSION 1.00 9. SLV PEOPLE WATCHING 1.04 10. GV BLACK CLOUD IN THE AIR COVERING U.S AND UKRAINIAN FLAGS 1.10 11. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) WAYNE HOLCOMBE, U.S NUCLEAR MISSILE DESTRUCTION PROGRAMME SAYING: "The significance of today is that the last intercontinental ballistic missile silo in Ukraine is gone. There are no more. You are totally nuclear free. It is a historic event and all of Ukraine should be very proud." 1.29 12. SV CHILDREN NEAR FLAGS 1.33 13. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) WAYNE HOLCOMBE, U.S NUCLEAR MISSILE DESTRUCTION PROGRAMME SAYING: "It does give a symbol for the rest of the world and what can be done with cooperation between the countries and, with the potential of a new nuclear threat, it's very important to see one eliminated from the earth." 1.47 14. WIDE OF SHAFT 1.54 15. MV MILITARY OFFICIALS TAKE PHOTO OF SHAFT 1.57 16. MV GENERAL VOLODYMYR MIKHTYUK LOOKING AT DESTRUCTION 2.02 17. MV SHAFT 2.09 18. MV OFFICIALS LEAVING PODIUM 2.17 19. SV SEISMOLOGISTS MONITORING 2.22 20. MV DELEGATIONS EXCHANGE SIGNED DOCUMENTS 2.34 21. SLV VIEW OF BULLDOZERS COVERING UP SHAFT 2.39 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 14th November 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PERVOMAISK, UKRAINE
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Reuters ID: LVA4COTE9ROTAL8L0M261YTCIAYC
  • Story Text: Ukrainian military officials have blown up the
    country's last Soviet-era nuclear missile silo, the final step
    in meeting a pledge to give up atomic weapons.



    The ceremony that took place in Ukraine's military
    base in Pervomaisk on Tuesday (October 30) was a rare piece
    of good news for the struggling military.

    It came less than a week after Defence Minister Oleksander
    Kuzmuk resigned because his troops accidentally shot down a
    Russian airliner with a conventional missile, killing 78
    passengers and crew.

    Standing in for Kuzmuk, Deputy Defence Minister Volodymyr
    Mikhtyuk joined U.S. officials and children to turn keys that
    triggered a blast at the silo on a military base near the
    small town of Pervomaisk.

    A sheet of flame rose out of the concrete launch tube,
    filling it with debris.

    "The significance of today is that the last
    intercontinental ballistic missile silo in Ukraine is gone,"
    said Wayne Holcombe, an official from the U.S. nuclear missile
    destruction programme.

    "There are no more. You are totally nuclear free. It is a
    historic event and all of Ukraine should be very proud."
    The silo at the military base 300 km (180 miles) south of
    the capital Kiev is the last of more than 170 missile silos
    which in Soviet times stood poised to rain a deadly array of
    missiles on western Europe and the United States.

    Ukraine inherited the silos when the Soviet Union
    collapsed in 1991, but soon after independence pledged to give
    up all nuclear arms in exchange for economic aid.

    It sent the last of its nuclear warheads to Russia in the
    1990s and earlier this year destroyed its last strategic
    bomber capable of being fitted with nuclear weapons. But in
    spite of its success in renouncing atomic weapons, Ukraine's
    cash-strapped military has been slow to reform and is plagued
    by training accidents.

    The shooting down of a Sibir airlines jet flying from Tel
    Aviv to Siberia on October 4 highlighted the Soviet-style
    attitudes of the top brass, who denied for days that they lost
    control of a missile fired during exercises in Crimea.

    cah/jrc


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