Ukraine rebuffs Yeltsin

KIEV (Reuter, AP) - Ukraine attacked President Boris Yeltsin of Russia over his weekend appeal for a United Nations mandate to act as a 'guarantor of peace' in the territory of the former Soviet Union. 'Ukraine has never recognised and will never recognise that Ukrainian territory is a sphere of Russian special interest,' said Mikola Mikhailchenko, chief adviser to President Leonid Kravchuk.

Russia will decide whether to cut off gas supplies to Ukraine after talks starting yesterday in the Siberian city of Surgut. Ukraine has vowed to retaliate if the two countries fail to agree on new prices for Russian oil and gas imports.