Ukraine Sold Missiles to Iran and China, Official Says

Ukraine’s prosecutor-general has acknowledged that his country sold 12 nuclear-capable cruise missiles to Iran and six to China in 2001, the Financial Times reported today (see GSN, Feb. 7).

None of the X-55 missiles with were sold with nuclear warheads, Svyatoslav Piskun told the Times.   The admission is the first confirmation of the exports by a Ukrainian government official.

Proof that Iran acquired the missiles would augment concerns about its nuclear program, according to the Times.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Ukraine had about 1,000 X-55 missiles in its arsenal. Half were expected to be turned over to Russia in the 1990s, while the rest was supposed to have been destroyed under a U.S.-funded nonproliferation program, the Times reported.

Additional investigations and a secret trial in connection with the case were under way, said a spokeswoman for Olexander Turchinov, the head of Ukraine’s security service. Another suspect is awaiting extradition in the Czech Republic (Tom Warner, Financial Times, March 18).

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