The Department of Defense announced today that a joint U.S.-Ukraine venture has
begun construction on a $16 million apartment complex in Khmelnitsky, Ukraine
for former Strategic Rocket Forces officers and their families.
Funded under
the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) (Nuun-Lugar) program, this project is
one among many focused on dismantling Ukraine's strategic nuclear forces.
This
defense conversion/housing project was developed in response to the Government
of Ukraine's request for assistance in this area.
Khmelnitsky is located
approximately 186 miles southwest of Kiev.
Under the U.S. CTR program, a $40 million implementing agreement for defense
conversion and industrial partnership assistance was signed on March 21, 1994
by DoD and Ukraine's Ministry of Machine Building, Military-Industrial Complex
and Conversion of Ukraine.
As of November, over $277 million in Nunn-Lugar
funds for all categories of cooperation has been obligated for Ukraine and this
assistance is currently being provided to Ukraine on a mutually agreed
timetable.
The joint venture between the Ukrainian firms Montazhnik K and the Central
Design Institute, and the U.S. firms of ABB SUSA, Inc., and American
International Services, Inc., will design and construct four apartment
buildings with a total of 135 units at a housing development site on the
outskirts of Khmelnitsky.
The apartments will range from one bedroom, 408
square-foot flats to four-room, 839 square-foot flats.
Work will include the
construction of necessary utilities, roads and sidewalks.
The project is
expected to be completed within a year.
Ukraine will provide land and extend
utilities from existing locations to the housing sites.
The Ukrainians plan to
eventually build a self-contained community at Khmelnitsky with 1,500
multi-story apartment units, utilities, roads, schools, shopping malls and
service buildings.
Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma's November state visit to the United States
marked an important turning point in the U.S.-Ukrainian relationship and is
considered a great success in advancing the two countries' bilateral commitment
to defense cooperation.
The ground breaking ceremony held today is just one
example of the extensive cooperation now underway between the United States and
Ukraine in a range of areas from cooperative programs to assist in the
dismantlement of the strategic nuclear arms on Ukrainian territory and
industrial partnerships between U.S. and Ukrainian firms, to a range of
military and defense contact programs designed to address Ukraine's broader
security concerns.
