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Ukraine under pressure at EU-Russia tug-of-war summit

28 November 2013, 20:56 CET
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Ukraine under pressure at EU-Russia tug-of-war summit

Barroso - Van Rompuy - Yanukovych - Photo EU Council

(VILNIUS) - Ukraine was pressed to choose sides Thursday as an EU summit designed to draw six ex-Soviet states into the Western fold opened Thursday amid a tough East-West tussle over influence.

Diplomats told AFP that pre-summit talks in the frosty Lithuanian capital between Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and EU leaders Herman Van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso -- respectively presidents of the EU Council and European Commission -- had not produced significant results.

"There was no progress," said a diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity. Yanukovych had requested extra EU funds to help the nation's struggling economy and demanded three-way talks between the EU, Russia and Ukraine on trade.

The EU however has repeatedly refused to even consider trilateral talks on trade, with one senior EU official saying this week "it would be like inviting China to the table at talks to agree an EU-US free trade deal."

West German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of the few EU leaders to speak as she went into a summit dinner at around 1800 GMT, said: "I have little hope of a deal (with Ukraine) this time, but the door remains open."

The summit originally was to have crowned an ambitious five-year bid by the European Union to reach out to states on its eastern flank with the signature of trade and political deals with three of the six former Soviet states.

But days before, Ukraine, the biggest prize, caved in to Moscow, turning its back on the West.

Kiev's surprise decision to scrap the landmark accord with the EU has unleashed a war of words between East and West recalling Cold War days and sparked some of the biggest protests seen in Ukraine in a decade.

Brussels says the deal is "still on the table" despite the rebuff and Kiev says it could even still sign it.

As pro-EU Ukrainians took to the streets demanding Yanukovych side with the West and turn away from Moscow, even his arch-foe, jailed former premier Yulia Tymoshenko, said she would rather stay behind bars than see the country go East.

EU nations concerned that Ukrainian opposition politicians are increasingly targeted by its prosecutors had asked she be released for medical treatment abroad.

"I passionately ask you to sign the agreement on Friday without any hesitation and conditions including those that are related to my release," Tymoshenko said in a message from jail.

"It's necessary to free Ukraine," she said.

Her daughter Euguenia told AFP that if Yanukovych "fails to sign the agreement tomorrow, we cannot predict how people will react."

Only Moldova, Georgia ready to sign

Keen to show Moscow's former communist satellites in Eastern Europe that the summit matters, almost all EU leaders were attending the two-day talks, including the "Big Three" of Britain, France and Germany.

The accent is on the future, they argue, rather than the past.

"We should overcome the mentality 'either us or them.' The Cold War is over," Merkel said, admonishing Russian President Vladimir Putin to look at the wider picture.

The Eastern Partnership summit also includes Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Belarus, aiming to strike trade and aid deals with the EU but vast Ukraine, with its 45 million people, industry and farms, is the major prize.

To make matters worse, Brussels has also seen Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus turn back towards a Moscow which has reminded all of how much they stand to lose if they make the wrong choice.

Only Moldova and Georgia -- which fought a 2008 war with Russia -- are now ready to initial agreements with the EU but Moscow could well apply pressure on them too before the deals are formally signed in around a year.

"Russia has already begun to increase pressure on these states as well," said global think-tank Stratfor.

Yanukovych insists the EU offered insufficient compensation to offset what Ukraine might lose in economic ties with Russia.

Brussels says that after months of arm-twisting by Moscow, Ukraine's exports to Russia dropped 25 percent, in some industries by 40 percent. Ukraine is also heavily dependent on Russia's natural gas.

The EU has come under stiff criticism for its handling of negotiations with Yanukovych, seen as having played both sides in his own interest of winning elections in 2015.

The six ex-Soviet states too were disappointed not to be clearly offered EU membership at the end of the line, a politically sensitive issue in many European states where far-right xenophobic parties are on the rise.

But others say the East-West row over Ukraine has shown the real face of Russian diplomacy.

"The Ukraine case will make many governments in the region and elsewhere think twice about their dealings with Moscow," said Carnegie Europe director Jan Techau.

The third Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius


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