Russia, Ukraine to Split Black Sea Fleet Down the Middle : Military: The accord holds promise of calming angry crews. Yeltsin also offers security guarantees on nuclear arms.

MOSCOW —  Russia and Ukraine agreed Thursday to split the Black Sea Fleet down the middle in hopes of finally ending the chronic disputes over its control that have riled sailors and set the two Slavic nations against each other.

The agreement between Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin and Ukrainian leader Leonid Kravchuk amounted to an admission that they cannot abide by their previous plan to share the fleet, once a jewel of the Soviet navy, for two years while they worked out its future.

Instead, Kravchuk told reporters, the 300-vessel fleet will be divided up beginning in September “on the principle of 50% to 50%.”

Yeltsin’s spokesmen said the Russian president also made official his offer of security guarantees to Ukraine as an encouragement to Kiev lawmakers to ratify the arms treaties that obligate Ukraine to give up its nuclear weapons to Russia. The United States too has offered Ukraine such guarantees, but legislators are balking at giving up the missiles.

The agreement on the Black Sea Fleet, which is subject to ratification by both parliaments, holds promise of calming the more than 200 of the fleet’s crews that had begun raising the Russian naval ensign over their ships to protest the measly salaries that Ukraine pays. The accord also seeks to stem Ukrainian complaints that Russia is trying to run the fleet by itself.

But the idea of divvying up the fleet appears to worry some military experts, who predict that such a dispersion will shift the naval balance of power in the Black Sea region in Turkey’s favor.

“The fleet’s dismemberment is now dangerous as never before,” a former commander of the fleet wrote recently. “According to our assessments, within the next two to three years the Turkish navy will be able to attain exclusive domination in the Black Sea.”

Yeltsin and Kravchuk, however, clearly decided that it was more dangerous to try to keep the fleet together. In recent weeks, Russian-Ukrainian talks on managing the fleet had broken down, and the mood among confused crews grew explosive as they demanded more money and at least some idea of what their future would be and some certainty about which country they can expect to serve.

Kravchuk agreed that the Russian naval forces formed from the fleet could share their traditional ports in the Crimean peninsula, which is Ukrainian territory. The presidents created a panel to work out details of the division, to be completed by 1995, and agreed that Russian and Ukrainian crews would receive the same salaries.

Yeltsin and Kravchuk reportedly agreed to provide all crew members with temporary dual citizenship, but it remained unclear how they would decide which ships and sailors go to which country. The Black Sea Fleet has about 70,000 sailors and includes submarines, airplanes and coast guard vessels as well as heavier ships.

Russian Foreign Minister Andrei V. Kozyrev said the fleet will be divided into two “not hostile but rather jointly acting” navies.

The presidents met at a critical political moment for both of them, and neither can count on winning approval of the agreement from their parliaments. Yeltsin has been concentrating almost all his energies on forging a new Russian constitution. On Wednesday, he gained a partial victory when a special constitutional assembly approved basic principles for the new charter, including private ownership guarantees.

On Thursday, a top aide said Yeltsin had scored another victory when regional leaders in the assembly worked out guidelines for Russia’s federal structure that would keep the country from splitting up into independent fiefdoms.

Kravchuk, meanwhile, appeared more and more embattled with economic decline in Ukraine spawning strikes by tens of thousands of workers and bringing calls for his removal. Ukraine’s Parliament voted Thursday to hold a referendum Sept. 26 on confidence in the president and the Parliament.

The vote failed to appease striking miners, who continued to demand prompt elections and large raises. Ukraine has been mired in political crisis for three weeks as Parliament has failed repeatedly to decide how to handle the economy.