WARSAW - About 900 Ukrainian soldiers, who the country's president said would leave Iraq by mid-October, can stay if necessary for another two months, the Ukrainian defense minister said Thursday.
Anatoly Hrytsenko said the final date for withdrawing Ukraine's forces would be set with the agreement of the allies in the US-led coalition in Iraq.
"Depending on the situation in Iraq, the troops could be there until December 15, November 15 or October 15. The question remains open," the defense chief said at a press conference in Warsaw.
On Tuesday, Ukraine's new president, Viktor Yushchenko, who made a campaign promise to pull out of Iraq, had announced a timetable for the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces, starting this month, with another group leaving in May and the final contingent in October.
Washington, which supported Yushchenko and his pro-democracy "orange revolution" in the December presidential election, asked him to "examine carefully" any decision to end Ukraine's military commitment in Iraq.
Eighteen Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in Iraq since its military deployment in August 2003. The Ukrainians have served in southern Iraq's Shiite province of Wassit as part of a multi-national division under Polish command in the US-led coalition.
In the Polish capital Friday, Hrytsenko will attend a meeting of defense ministers from the Visegrad group of central European nations including Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
03/03/2005 18:31 GMT