Ukraine to investigate disappearance of hundreds of missiles

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, March 28, 2004

Ukraine to investigate disappearance of hundreds of missiles

The Ukrainian military will launch an in-depth investigation into the disappearance of hundreds of missiles, Defense Minister Yevgeni Kirillovich Marchuk has promised.

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The Ukrainian military will launch an in-depth investigation into the disappearance of hundreds of missiles, Defense Minister Yevgeni Kirillovich Marchuk has promised.

In a recent review of the military's arsenal, the armed forces found that hundreds of missiles had been lost, Interfax-Ukraine News Agency quoted the minister as saying late Friday.

Marchuk said the missing missiles were all air defense ones inherited from the now-defunct Soviet Union. Ukraine declared independence in 1991.

The missiles were decommissioned in the 1980s, and can no longer be used in actual combat, he added.

When he took over as defense chief in June 2003, Marchuk said, he found an absence of a unified inventory and registration system for military hardware.

He then ordered a comprehensive check, only to find a gap of some 1 trillion hryvna (189 billion US dollars).

Marchuk said the military had presented the results to the military procuratorate, who would launch an all-around investigation into the disappearance of the missiles and other relevant illegal activities.

Ukraine inherited many advanced weapons in the wake of the 1991collapse of the Soviet Union, including dozens of intercontinental ballistic missiles and strategic bombers. All of its nuclear weapons were shipped to Russia in the early 1990s for dismantlement.

Source: Xinhua

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