Yeltsin woos Ukraine over Yugoslav crisis MOSCOW, April 1 (Reuters) - President Boris Yeltsin said on Thursday the Yugoslav crisis made closer cooperation between Russia and Ukraine an ``urgent task,'' Russian news agencies said. Yeltsin, speaking after talks with visiting Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, said NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia -- opposed by Russia and Ukraine -- underlined the need for a strategic partnership between Moscow and Kiev. ``(Russia and Ukraine) agreed to coordinate to a high degree their efforts to achieve a swift end to NATO's military action against Yugoslavia,'' Kremlin aide Sergei Prikhodko was quoted by RIA news agency as saying. Moscow and Kiev, intially distrustful of each other after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, have moved closer together since Yeltsin and Kuchma signed a long-delayed friendship treaty last year. Yeltsin outlined to Kuchma his plans to help restore peace in the Balkans and the Ukrainian leader said he would send his foreign minister to Belgrade in the near future, Prikhodko said. Ukraine sent its foreign and defence ministers to Belgrade last week to try to mediate in the Kosovo crisis but they returned empty-handed. A Russian mission led by Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov also ended in failure on Tuesday. Primakov was unable to wring sufficient concessions from Ukraine to stop the NATO bombing. Russia and Ukraine both have cultural, linguistic and religious ties with their fellow Slavs in Serbia, who are fighting separatist ethnic Albanians in the province of Kosovo. Belarus, the third mainly Slavic republic of the former Soviet Union, also strongly opposes NATO's bombing campaign and said on Thursday it was suspending cooperation with the alliance, as Russia has already done. Russian Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev announced on Wednesday Moscow would send a reconnaissance ship on Friday to the Mediterranean Sea to monitor the Yugoslav crisis and said more ships might follow. The ships are based at the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, leased to Russia by Ukraine under a post-Soviet agreement. Yeltsin and Kuchma, who also discussed their wider bilateral relations, agreed to hold an informal meeting in May. CIS Foreign Ministers Failed to Sign Kosovo Resolution Moscow, April 2 (Bloomberg) -- Russia failed to gather support from the foreign ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States for a resolution condemning the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's military action in Yugoslavia, Russian daily Vremya reported. Seven out of 12 foreign ministers, including those of Azerbaijan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan [with Musli majorities, likely to be sympathetic to the Kosovar Albanians] told Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov they find the proposed text too harsh and inadequate. The proposed resolution was drafted by Belarus and was more radical than a resolution prepared by Russia, which ministers didn't have time to discuss, the paper said. Presidents of CIS countries will meet today in Moscow and may further discuss the situation around Kosovo. (Vremya 4/2 1)
