U.S. Policy On Ukraine Called `Chicken Kiev'

KIEV, Ukraine - One offended critic called it the "Chicken Kiev" speech, and it left a bitterness some Ukrainians could still taste as Secretary of State James Baker yesterday spelled out American intentions toward their country.

Only one month ago, radical Ukrainian lawmaker Ivan Zayets recalled, "We were saying, `We will be autonomous.' But America was still telling us, `No, you won't, you'll be in the Soviet Union.' "

The exponent of the old and now discarded line was none other than Baker's boss, President Bush. He flew to Kiev after last summer's Moscow superpower summit and delivered a speech here that, to many, seemed a tepid U.S. dismissal of Ukrainian aspirations to statehood.

"Freedom is not the same as independence," Bush said Aug. 1. "Americans will not support those who seek independence in order to replace a far-off tyranny with a local despotism. They will not aid those who promote a suicidal nationalism based upon ethnic hatred."

Shorn of rhetorical niceties, the U.S. position seemed to be: Moscow and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev know best. Although the parliament was dominated by Communists opposed to secession, Bush's speech "went down about as well as cod-liver oil," one Kiev-based diplomat remarked.

In the waning days of November, as this republic prepared for a referendum on independence, the White House dramatically shifted its policy and decided it would have to ultimately extend diplomatic recognition to a free Ukraine. A new country of 52 million people would just be too big to ignore.

But some Ukrainians are not convinced that there has been a fundamental change in American policy. They believe that the White House has simply stopped being Gorbachev's advocate and now has taken up the course of a new strongman in the Kremlin: Yeltsin. ---------------------------------------------------------------

Related developments

In other news related to the Soviet Union:

-- Russian President Boris Yeltsin has issued decrees taking over the Kremlin, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's staff and all Soviet agencies except the ministries of defense and nuclear energy, according to Interfax news agency. The report said all of the assets of Gorbachev's staff, including hard currency, would be taken over by Russia. The decrees, to which Gorbachev had agreed during a meeting with Yeltsin on Tuesday, were signed as part of Yeltsin's plan to shut down the central government by the end of the year.

-- Gorbachev was quoted as saying he will "decide his destiny" after a weekend meeting of republic leaders. An aide denied a report that Gorbachev had already drawn up his resignation.

-- Secretary of State James Baker told NATO he received "very, very firm assurances" from Soviet authorities on the control of their 27,000 nuclear weapons.

Byelorussia says it wants to become a neutral, nuclear-free state, and Ukraine says it would seek to eliminate all nuclear arms in the republic by the year 2,000. Kazakhstan has hedged on disarmament. Its president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, said he would like the republic to become nuclear-free but might retain some warheads if Russia does.

Baker obtained a promise from NATO of help in preventing the proliferation of Soviet nuclear arms.

-- A NATO official said the 16 nations in the Western alliance will probably recognize the independence of the Soviet republics within weeks. Sweden, which is not a NATO member, said it also will recognize the former Soviet republics of Russia, Ukraine and Byelorussia as independent nations.

-- For the first time since 1983, annual global food production has fallen, the United Nations said, and that could worsen the already dangerous food shortage in the Soviet Union. Figured into the sharp drop in wheat production was a 23 percent decline in the Soviet Union, where drought damaged spring wheat and other losses were caused by "inadequate infrastructure and shortages of spare parts and fuel," a U.N. report said.