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The first group of Ukraine's anti-nuclear and anti-chemical troops left on Tuesday for Kuwait at the request of the United States, which launched a war on Iraq last week.
The group, of 35 servicemen, departed from Lvov in southwestern Ukraine. The Ukrainian military said Ukraine would send a total of about 530 chemical warfare and nuclear decontamination troops to Kuwait, which has agreed to the deployment.
The Ukrainian unit, to be stationed 70 kilometers south of the Kuwait City, the capital of Kuwait, and about 200 kilometers to the Kuwaiti border with Iraq, would operate at some ports, airports and other strategic posts in the Gulf country.
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has stressed that the Ukrainian troops would only operate on protective and humanitarian missions in Kuwait.
At the airport in Lvov, Ukrainian Defense Minister Vladimir Shkidchenko told reporters that in the coming days his ministry would use two aircraft each day to transport the rest of the Ukrainian troops.
He stressed that under the agreement with Kuwait, the Ukrainian troops would not work in Iraq or any other Gulf countries.
The Ukrainian anti-nuclear and anti-chemical troops are well-experienced in decontamination and protection work. About 25 experts of them took part in the work dealing with the aftermath of the 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power station.
Responding to Washington's request, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia also dispatched anti-chemical units to the Gulf.
(Xinhua News Agency March 26, 2003)
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