Ukraine has sent 50 kilogrammes of weapon- grade uranium to Russia as part of a nuclear threat limitation agreement, the Ria Novosti news agency reported Friday. The secret shipment removed highly enriched uranium from research institutes in the cities of Kiev and Sevastopol for turnover to the Russian government, dpa cited a Foreign Ministry statement as saying. President Viktor Yanukovych had promised in April during a meeting with United States President Barack Obama in Washington to eliminate within two years Ukraine's reserves of enriched uranium, the critical element of an atomic bomb. Washington in return had offered financial assistance and a guaranteed supply of lower-grade uranium for use in Ukrainian nuclear reactors. Ukraine in 1994 became the first country in history to abandon an existing nuclear arsenal. The US government in recent years had been pushing for Ukraine to divest itself of enriched uranium stockpiles remaining in the former Soviet republic, because of fears that the material might fall into unsafe hands.
