Official: Ukraine sold missiles to Iran, China

KIEV, Ukraine — A senior lawmaker yesterday called for Ukraine's prosecutor-general to investigate alleged sales of nuclear-capable cruise missiles to Iran and China in violation of international nonproliferation treaties.

The appeal, by Hrihory Omelchenko, follows allegations he made in a letter to new President Viktor Yushchenko. Omelchenko is a parliament member and is a reserve colonel in Ukraine's intelligence service.

Yushchenko, who succeeded Leonid Kuchma, has promised a thorough investigation of corruption and misdeeds that allegedly flourished during his predecessor's 10 years as president. Kuchma allegedly sanctioned the sale of sophisticated radar systems to Iraq in 2002, violating U.N. sanctions.

In his letter to Yushchenko, Omelchenko said an investigation launched last summer "proved that some 20 air-launched Kh-55 and Kh-55M cruise missiles with nuclear capability were exported to third countries" in violation of international treaties.

"Six missiles destined for Russia ended up in Iran ... six missiles destined for Russia ended up in China," the letter said. It said the sales occurred in 2000-01.

Iranian diplomats in Kiev were not available for comment.

In the early 1990s, Ukraine renounced the nuclear armaments it inherited in the breakup of the Soviet Union and said it shipped all of its nuclear warheads to Russia for decommissioning under U.S. control.

The country remains a sizable producer of weapons, including missiles, aircraft and tanks. Exports are largely to other former Soviet republics, Asia and Africa.

Last year Ukrainian police arrested four men from Greece, Pakistan and Iraq on suspicion of attempted illegal weapons trade worth more than $800 million for an unspecified force fighting in Iraq.

In March 2004, former Defense Minister Yevhen Marchuk warned that several hundred Soviet-built SA-2 surface-to-air missiles were unaccounted for.

Defense officials later claimed that these missiles from arsenals in former Warsaw Pact member countries had been taken to Ukraine for decommissioning and were lost due to "accounting problems" and "the absence of records."