US Vice-President Dick Cheney is in Ukraine on the last stop on his tour of the region aimed at showing support for US allies in the former Soviet Union.

He flew to Kiev from Georgia, where he condemned Ukraine's government close to collapse ...
Cheney gives Caucasus allies message of support ...
Czechs reiterate support for Georgia's territorial integrity ...
Russian invasion of Georgia inadmissible - Czech ForMin ...
Seven Czechs leave Georgia, no Czech in area of fighting-official ...
Georgian president meets German Chancellor in Berlin ... Russia's "illegitimate" attempt to change Georgia's borders.

Mr Cheney said that Russia's actions during the recent conflict with Georgia had cast doubt on its reliability as an international partner.

Before Georgia, Mr Cheney also stopped in oil-rich Azerbaijan.

Open aggression

In Kiev, the vice-president is expected to hold talks with President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Nato, energy pipelines and support for Georgia.

The Ukraine president has warned that his country is a hostage in a war waged by Russia against countries in the old Soviet bloc.

European officials have suggested that Ukraine could be the next flashpoint for tensions between Russia and the West.

Russia is strongly opposed to any further expansion eastwards of Nato, and is furious that Ukraine and Georgia have been promised that, one day, they will be offered membership.

The strategically located country is important to Russia, with pipelines that carry Russian gas to European consumers and its Black Sea port, home to a key Russian naval base.

Russia has a powerful tool at its disposal, namely the large ethnic Russian population in Ukraine's southern province of Crimea.

In response to the threat, Mr Yushchenko has restricted Russia's naval operations, and insists Moscow must leave when an inter-state treaty expires in 2017.

Ukraine has said it is ready to make its missile early warning systems available to European nations following Russia's conflict with Georgia.

Staunch support

Mr Cheney's visit comes at an awkward time for President Yushchenko, with the country's largely pro-Western ruling coalition divided in its attitude toward Russia.

Earlier this week Ms Tymoshenko's party blocked a motion condemning Russia's actions in Georgia, and sided with the opposition to vote for a curb on the president's powers.

The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse in Kiev says the leaders' faltering relationship has boiled over into open aggression, with Mr Yushchenko threatening to dissolve parliament and call a snap election.

The president has been staunch in his support for Georgia's leader Mikhail Saakashvili.

Ms Tymoshenko has avoided outright condemnation of Russia, leading analysts to suggest she may be hoping for Moscow's backing in a possible bid for the presidency in 2010.

Fighting between Russia and Georgia began on 7 August after the Georgian military tried to retake the breakaway region of South Ossetia by force.

Russian forces launched a counter-attack and the conflict ended with the ejection of Georgian troops from South Ossetia and Georgia's other separatist region of Abkhazia.

Russia has since recognised the independence of both regions, and dismissed Georgian President Saakashvili as a "political corpse" whose leadership it did not recognise.

On his trip to Georgia, Mr Cheney said alongside President Saakashvili: "After your nation won its freedom in the Rose Revolution, America came to the aid of this courageous young democracy."

(BBC)

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