Ukraine

President Leonid Kravchuk of Ukraine arrives in Washington today to meet President Clinton and members of Congress. There are two general perspectives on the importance of this meeting.Zbigniew Brzezinski argues in the current issue of Foreign Affairs that the West must create conditions such that Russia can't follow a neo-imperialist course, and that the Russian-Ukrainian border is the best place to draw a line in the sand.Irving Kristol, on the other hand, concludes that Ukraine's fate is to become ''a client state, or semi-protectorate of Russia.

COLLEGE PARK -- No one knew quite what to make of Alex Len when he arrived at the University of Maryland a year ago. On the one hand, he was a 7-foot-1 center with enough athletic ability to execute a perfect cartwheel before dunking the basketball at Maryland's Midnight Madness celebration. On the other, he was a kid who spoke so little English that he sometimes struggled with coaching instructions, who appeared timid when jostled by the well-muscled inside players of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Although Ukraine introduced Christianity as well as organized government to Russia, outsiders have often viewed it as a nation on the periphery. The name itself conveys that sentiment: Ukraina means "outskirts" (or "vastness"). English-speakers have only added to that sense of marginality by referring to it as the Ukraine.For the past four centuries, Ukraine has been dominated by a succession of foreign usurpers -- Russians, Poles and Germans. As a result of Sunday's referendum, a seemingly impossible change in political geography has occurred: Ukrainians have given birth to a major new nation in Europe.

Item: I know that R.L.G. must be right at Johnson , because he says the same things about whom that I have been saying: In normal speech, who is used as subject and object; whom appears in formal speech and writing, and less frequently there. "Since whom  is becoming less common, many people can't use it properly even when they are aiming for Formal. (A common mistake is using it in a subject role, for example: That's the candidate whom I hope will win the election.  Here, the mistake is in thinking that  I hope turns  who  into an object.

Kiev, Ukraine -- The most important part of President Clinton's trip to Moscow may be his after-trip to Kiev.The reason is this. As Ukraine goes, so go Poland, Russia itself -- and even Europe. Ukraine, with a territory and population the size of France, is the involuntary guarantor of Warsaw's security, of Moscow's non-imperial identity, and of Central Europe's peace.After teetering on the verge of what the CIA thought might even be civil war a year ago, Kiev looks miraculously like fulfilling those roles today.

The United States has switched from vinegar to honey in its drive to secure Ukraine's compliance with nuclear arms treaties that would eliminate its portion of the old Soviet arsenal. In a visit to Kiev this week, U.S. envoy Strobe Talbott assured his much-affronted hosts that Washington would treat Ukraine with the dignity it deserves as the world's third ranking nuclear power and an important European country larger than France.Mr. Talbott's gesture marked a turn-around from President Clinton's refusal to meet with the Ukrainian prime minister in March and his insistence that Ukraine's ratification of the START treaty was "a precondition to a long-term successful relationship."

Resurgent Russian revanchism, as revealed in parliamentary elections earlier this month, is causing shock waves among its immediate neighbors, especially Ukraine. The Kiev government has responded in ways that show how rattled it is.Just before Christmas it attended a summit meeting of the former Soviet states, including Russia, and gave its support to Russia's embattled reform president, Boris N. Yeltsin. But it also insisted on a communique expressing concern about "nationalism, xenophobia, religious intolerance, expansionism and chauvinism."

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine faces a moment of truth after a prominent politician was gunned down this month. It can either succumb to a descent into political violence, or it can be shocked into resisting such degeneration.The best test of its reaction may well be how fast it accelerates sluggish economic liberalization and gets rid of the cozy insider corruption that Mafia entanglements and feuds thrive on.''This isn't very European, is it?'' asked one Ukrainian official to a colleague after Evehen Shcherban was shot at the Donetsk airport in eastern Ukraine.

Last weekend's parliamentary elections pinpoint to one of the fundamental weaknesses of Ukraine. Instead of being a country with a single national identity, it is strongly Ukrainian in the west, divided or Russian in the east.This conflict of culture, language and identification would cause difficulties in the best of times. Unfortunately, these are not the best of times for Ukraine, which on paper should be one of the most important European countries on the basis of its population of 52 million.

KIEV, Ukraine -- So far, so good, if Ukraine is the measure of NATO enlargement.One of the strongest arguments against admitting new members to NATO has been that such enlargement would draw new dividing lines in Europe. It might increase stability for Poland and other Central European states allowed into the privileged club, opponents argued, but it would increase instability for those on the other side of the line, most notably the Baltic states and Ukraine. Russia could be expected to retaliate by pressuring its vulnerable neighbors, and that would be a grave loss overall.

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Shame on you. What an embarrassment The Sun's coverage of the Baltimore Marathon was. Accompanying the article describing "one of the most thrilling finishes in the event's 11 year history" you chose to offer photos of a bunch of runners-up approaching the finish line and photos of the racers interacting with the animals at the zoo. Buried on page 16 of the sports section were pictures of the two winners, Stephan Muange of Kenya and Olena...

Mykola "Mike" Koropeckyj, a retired noncommissioned Army officer who later worked for the Social Security Administration, died June 5 of lung cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Columbia. The Edmondson Heights resident was 83. The son of a Ukrainian Catholic priest and a homemaker, Mr. Koropeckyj was born in Dolyna, a village in the Western Ukraine. With the coming of World War II, Mr. Koropeckyj left his parents and homeland in 1944, eventually being put in a displaced persons camp in Germany at the end of the war. "During this time he completed gymnasium [high school]

There were times during Saturday's 10th annual Under Armour Baltimore Marathon when the race appeared to be a two-man bolt to the finish. Kenya's Julius Keter and Ethiopia's Alene Reta weaved through Baltimore side-by-side for more than half of the race, but David Rutoh kept his pace a few blocks behind, waiting to make his burst. Rutoh fought through suddenly windy conditions during the 22nd mile and surged into first place, running uncontested through the finish line at M&T Bank Stadium amid raucous cheering from the largest crowd in the event's history.

Which landlocked country is surrounded by Romania and Ukraine? Answer on Page 5:

BONN -- Ukraine's top economic reformer, Viktor Pynzenyk, resigned this month after the Kiev parliament rejected yet again both tax revision and the 1997 budget. And Motorola, Marathon Oil, and the sugar giant Tate & Lyle have all recently left Ukraine because of the vast corruption they encountered there.It's bad news for the U.S. and even worse news for Ukraine. A strategic American protege is falling backward -- and the International Monetary Fund will not release the $3 billion it pledged Kiev for budget support if deficits were kept reasonable.

In the context of America's debate over policy toward Europe, chalk one up for the "Russia-firsters." Ukraine's agreement to get rid of all its long-range nuclear weaponry -- a breakthrough to be signed Friday in Moscow at the high point of President Clinton's overseas journey -- buttresses the argument that Russia must be a major player if there is to be peace in Europe.Even as NATO diplomats labored to bring forth the Partnership for Peace proposal as a substitute for the full membership sought by Eastern European nations, administration negotiators kept working for the elusive nuclear accord with Russia and Ukraine.