After an accidental blast killed seven Ukrainian soldiers in Iraq, the country’s president-elect Viktor Yushchenko said that withdrawing the nation’s troops from Iraq would be a priority for him once he takes office. The seven Ukrainian troops and one Kazakh soldier died after a bomb they were about to defuse went off accidentally in central Iraq. Some 1,600 Ukrainian troops have been deployed since August 2003 in western Iraq. Prior to Sunday’s deaths, Ukraine has lost nine of its troops, with another 20 injured. In the heat of Ukraine’s election saga in December, parliament in Kiev approved a resolution that demanded outgoing President Leonid Kuchma withdraw Ukrainian soldiers from Iraq.