NATO To Help Ukraine Deal With Surplus Ammunition

4 July 2005 (RFE/RL) -- The Defense Ministry in Kyiv says that NATO experts arrived in Ukraine today to provide advice about what to do with its vast supplies of surplus ammunition.

Ukraine has 159 arsenals that it inherited in the breakup of the Soviet Union, and many are poorly maintained.

The NATO experts are also due to provide assistance to Ukraine in dealing with the consequences of a deadly blast last year at a depot in southeastern Ukraine.

President Viktor Yushchenko's government has pledged to speed up destruction of the surplus ammunition, which includes highly toxic liquid rocket fuel from dismantled nuclear missiles.

(AP)