KIEV, Oct 11: Ukraine Defence Minister Olexander Kuzmuk offered to step down “immediately” after a Russian plane crashed into the Black Sea last week, possibly after being hit by a Ukrainian missile, but President Leonid Kuchma said Thursday he had rejected the resignation.
The Russian Tu-154 airliner crashed into the Black Sea October 4, killing all 76 passengers and crew, in what is increasingly believed to have been an accidental downing by a Ukrainian S-200 missile fired during a military exercise.
Kuchma told reporters that “as president and supreme commander” he was “not going to get rid of (his) people so easily,” and said he was going to wait for the findings of the official investigation.
On Tuesday, having previously rejected responsibility for the plane crash, Kuchma conceded that it was “theoretically” possible a Ukrainian missile had shot down the airliner.
Kuzmuk has been the most insistent of Ukrainian officials denying his country’s involvement in the plane crash, which was initially put down to a terrorist act or a mechanical failure.
Defence minister since 1996, and one of Kuchma’s closest lieutenants, Kuzmuk came under strong criticism last year when a surface missile fell on a house near Kiev, killing three people.
He denied responsibility until investigators produced solid proof that the deaths had been caused by an army missile.
The deputy speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, Viktor Medvedchuk, called on Kuzmuk to step down, saying he should “do the honourable thing and resign,” while the Ukrainian Communist party called for Kuzmuk’s “immediate dismissal.”
Political analyst Vladimir Malinkovich found Kuzmuk’s continuation in office incongruous: “If he resigned, it’s because he knew he was guilty. Why go on saying the Ukrainians weren’t involved?”
The Sibir airliner had left Tel Aviv and was heading for the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, carrying mainly Israeli passengers and an all-Russian crew, when it crashed some 180 kilometres from Sochi.
The head of Ukraine’s Security and Defence Council, Evhen Marchuk, arrived in Sochi to inspect fragments of the plane’s fuselage that had been pulled from the sea.
He was accompanied by Russian Security Council chief Vladimir Rushailo, who heads the Russian commission charged with determining the causes of the disaster.—AFP