European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 24, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                These lbs 1942-1992 50 years of service vol. 51, no. 37 500 sunday May 24,1992 d 8693 aex soviet states to Cut missiles Lisbon Portugal apr Secretary of state James a. Baker Iii was poised to sign an agreement saturday with the foreign ministers of four former soviet republics committing them to observe the Start missile reduction treaty. The pact binds Russia Ukraine Kazakhstan and Belarus to the terms accepted by the soviet Union before its disintegration last december. And it sets the stage for hearings on . Senate ratification and negotiations with Russia to trim strategic nuclear arsenals below the cuts mandated by the Accord. Ukraine now ranks As the worlds third most powerful nuclear nation and Kazakhstan is in fourth place. Together they have More nuclear weapons than Britain France and China combined. Along with Belarus which has 72 strategic nuclear warheads the three newly Independent nations have promised to become nuclear free and to sign the 1968 nuclear nonproliferation treaty which will prohibit them from acquiring or transferring nuclear technology. Ukraine Kazakhstan and Belarus have agreed to remove their Long Range nuclear weapons within the seven years the treaty requires for cuts of about 38 percent Overall in soviet Long Range nuclear missiles bombers and submarines and about 30 percent of . Arsenals. All three already have transported All of their Short Range nuclear weapons to Russia for dismantling there. President Bush and Baker secured Ukraine a participation during a visit to Washington three weeks ago by president Leonid Kravchuk. The last major Roadblock was cleared on a similar visit last week by Kazakhstan president Nur Sultan Naza Bayev. Even so the details remained elusive until the last moment. Baker was up until 2 . Friday in London working on them with his staff. He was to meet today with russian foreign minister Andrei Kozarev to begin planning for a new round of missile cuts. Signing the protocol with Baker Are Kozarev and foreign ministers Anatoliy Zlenko of Ukraine and Petr Kravchanko of Belarus and state Counselor Tulc gun Zhuk Eyck of Kazakhstan. When the soviet Union fell apart it had some 27,000 nuclear weapons a about 12,000 of them Long Range warheads. Ukraine Kazakhstan and Belarus arc eliminating about 3,250 strategic warheads As Well As All their Battlefield nuclear weapons. Russia meanwhile will dismantle enough of its 8,750 strategic warheads to meet the Overall requirements of the treaty or might go further . Officials said. Russia has 20,750 Short and Long Range  Over thin ice a a Royal air Force Nimrod flies Over British and american nuclear powered submarines As they break through the ice at the North pole recently. The meeting of the trenchant Bottom and the . Spade Flash is an annual tradition but the Crews could not play their usual games of Cricket or baseball because of thin  today the search for unde  remains combat zone Pentagon says by Susanne m. Schafer the associated press Washington the persian Gulf War ended about 14 months ago right wrong. In the eyes of Pentagon paper pushers operation desert storm is still alive. The persian Gulf conflict As it is known among Pentagon bureaucrats did no to really end with the 100 hours of ground combat in february 1991. The reason those bureaucrats say is that president Bush Hasni to formally called it quits. Bush appeared on National television the night of feb. 27, 1991, to declare Kuwait liberated and Iraq Defeated. He also said the Allied forces would suspend offensive operations. Four Days later the desert storm commander Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf met with his vanquished iraqi foes at an air base in Southern Iraq where the iraqi commanders accepted strict terms for permanently ending the War. But More than a year later about 18,000 . Military men and women remain in the Gulf. And defense Secretary Dick Cheney has not submitted a nor has Bush signed a a proclamation declaring operation desert storm at an end. A technically the persian Gulf Region is still considered a combat zone a said a Pentagon spokesman air Force it. Col. Doug Hart. A an executive order made it a combat zone and in see Gulf on Page 2 air show flies under Cloud of controversy a see stories Page 3