EU deal would allow Ukraine free trade with Europe, and is seen as symbolic move away from former Communist masters
Standing by a tent adorned with fluttering EU flags in Kiev's Independence Square, Vitali Selyk hands out leaflets to passersby declaring: "For a European future." Just a few hundred metres away, posters outside the metro station make the opposite case, warning that closer ties with the EU will lead Ukraine down a path of rising prices, job losses and legalised gay marriages.
These two very different visions of the future reflect rising tension in Ukraine in the face of a critical east-or-west moment. Next week, an association agreement with the EU is on the table at a summit in Vilnius. While falling far short of giving Ukraine EU member status, the agreement provides for free trade with Europe and is seen as a highly symbolic move westward, away from the former Communist masters in Moscow.
A furious Kremlin has used a combination of small potential carrots and huge potential sticks, warning that if Ukraine signs the agreement it could lead to economic turmoil and political unrest. Instead, Moscow wants Ukraine to join its own free trade grouping, the customs union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, which many have seen as an effort to reconstitute elements of the Soviet Union.
In the middle of this tug of war sits the jailed former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko. Ukraine's rulers have said they want to sign the EU deal, but they could end up sabotaging it if President Viktor Yanukovych does not release Tymoshenko by next week. European leaders have said many times that she must be released before a deal can be signed, but parliament has repeatedly stalled on passing the required legislation.
"If we get the association agreement, then at least my children will live a better life," says 24-year-old Selyk. "But if we join the customs union, then all will remain the same."
But those who oppose the EU deal have pointed to crippling consequences for Ukraine's troubled economy, which is stuck in a spiral of negative growth. Hit by weaker demand for its exports, Ukraine's credit ratings have been cut as the country's foreign reserves fell in October to their lowest since 2006. Eurosceptics say that Ukraine's creaking factories will be forced to conform to EU standards in an implausibly short time, causing chaos and reducing production.
"At least 20 million people will lose their jobs," predicts Olena Markosian, chief analyst of Ukrainsky Vybor, a pro-Russian group headed by Viktor Medvedchuk, known to be a friend of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Markosian calls Ukraine's move towards the EU a "scam" that will be painful for the industrial eastern regions of Ukraine, economically the most dependent on Russia.
Ukraine suffers from an acute regional and demographic split, with residents of the west and centre as well as youth more pro-European while the eastern and southern regions and elderly people are more orientated towards Russia. Although the number of Ukrainians who support the landmark agreement with the EU has risen since last summer, it is still only at 45% according to a recent poll. Meanwhile, only 14% support joining the pro-Russian block.
Outraged by Ukraine's movements to push ahead with the EU deal, Russia applied trade sanctions against a number of Ukrainian goods earlier this year, including pipes and chocolate. In late October, Russia introduced new customs procedures hampering customs clearance for trucks exporting goods from Ukraine, leading to traffic jams several miles long on the border. The Kremlin's point man on Ukraine even said that if the deal is signed, Russia could cease to recognise Ukraine's status as a state.
Petro Poroshenko, a businessman and former minister whose confectionery company Roshen had its products banned by Russia in late July, said on a TV show that after the Russian ban, purchases of Roshen sweets in Ukraine increased by 13%, and there were calls to boycott Russian goods across Ukraine.
But in recent weeks, authorities seem to have yielded to Russian pressure. On 9 November, Yanukovych visited Putin in Moscow, a trip made in almost complete secrecy. A few days later, Ukraine's parliament, where the majority of seats are controlled by the pro-presidential Party of Regions, failed to pass the three laws remaining to fulfil the demands posed by Brussels in order to successfully sign the deal. On the same day Ukraine's prime minister, Mykola Azarov, said that the normalisation of relations with Russia was "issue number one for national policy".
"These signals from the ruling party show that some proposals came from Russia, and they were quite significant," says Oleksandr Sushko, research director at the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation in Kiev. He suggested that the incentives could include promises of cheaper gas, favourable loans or personal advantages for Yanukovych. "The ruling party would like the EU to react to this and soften its demands."
European leaders have made it clear that Ukraine needs to free Tymoshenko, an icon of the 2004 Orange Revolution against fraudulent elections that ultimately prevented Yanukovych from assuming the presidency. After losing to Yanukovych by just a few per cent in 2010, Tymoshenko was put on trial and sentenced to seven years in jail for exceeding her authority as prime minister, in a case widely seen as an attempt by the president to oust his political rival.
European mediators have promoted the idea of sending Tymoshenko, who suffers from severe back pain, to Germany for medical treatment, as a compromise allowing Yanukovych to save face. But his party has so far blocked any attempts to pass the bill in parliament. A further attempt to do so on Tuesday was postponed until Thursday. Oleksandr Yefremov, leader of the Party of Regions parliamentary faction said there is only a 50% chance that this law as well as two other laws needed for the signing of the EU deal would be passed this week.
Sushko said Yanukovych is hoping Europe agrees to sign the deal without freeing Tymoshenko and also grants Ukraine financial assistance. "This is a risky game, in which both Ukraine and Europe may lose to Putin," he said.
Russia's belligerence has given the deal symbolic importance for Brussels as well as Kiev, and as EU officials have begun to realise that Tymoshenko may not be released in time, there are some who want to press ahead anyway, to avoid Ukraine slipping back into Russia's orbit. It would be an embarrassing climbdown, given how many times European leaders have stressed that the agreement is impossible without her release, but if at a dinner during the summit next week Yanukovych gives his word that he will release her in the coming months, a last-minute compromise arrangement could indeed be possible.
Poroshenko, who is also an opposition MP, said he was still optimistic on Ukraine's chances of signing the historic pact with the EU. "If it doesn't happen, Ukraine will lose the trust of the entire world," he said. "I believe that common sense should win through." Reported by guardian.co.uk 10 hours ago.
Standing by a tent adorned with fluttering EU flags in Kiev's Independence Square, Vitali Selyk hands out leaflets to passersby declaring: "For a European future." Just a few hundred metres away, posters outside the metro station make the opposite case, warning that closer ties with the EU will lead Ukraine down a path of rising prices, job losses and legalised gay marriages.
These two very different visions of the future reflect rising tension in Ukraine in the face of a critical east-or-west moment. Next week, an association agreement with the EU is on the table at a summit in Vilnius. While falling far short of giving Ukraine EU member status, the agreement provides for free trade with Europe and is seen as a highly symbolic move westward, away from the former Communist masters in Moscow.
A furious Kremlin has used a combination of small potential carrots and huge potential sticks, warning that if Ukraine signs the agreement it could lead to economic turmoil and political unrest. Instead, Moscow wants Ukraine to join its own free trade grouping, the customs union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, which many have seen as an effort to reconstitute elements of the Soviet Union.
In the middle of this tug of war sits the jailed former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko. Ukraine's rulers have said they want to sign the EU deal, but they could end up sabotaging it if President Viktor Yanukovych does not release Tymoshenko by next week. European leaders have said many times that she must be released before a deal can be signed, but parliament has repeatedly stalled on passing the required legislation.
"If we get the association agreement, then at least my children will live a better life," says 24-year-old Selyk. "But if we join the customs union, then all will remain the same."
But those who oppose the EU deal have pointed to crippling consequences for Ukraine's troubled economy, which is stuck in a spiral of negative growth. Hit by weaker demand for its exports, Ukraine's credit ratings have been cut as the country's foreign reserves fell in October to their lowest since 2006. Eurosceptics say that Ukraine's creaking factories will be forced to conform to EU standards in an implausibly short time, causing chaos and reducing production.
"At least 20 million people will lose their jobs," predicts Olena Markosian, chief analyst of Ukrainsky Vybor, a pro-Russian group headed by Viktor Medvedchuk, known to be a friend of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Markosian calls Ukraine's move towards the EU a "scam" that will be painful for the industrial eastern regions of Ukraine, economically the most dependent on Russia.
Ukraine suffers from an acute regional and demographic split, with residents of the west and centre as well as youth more pro-European while the eastern and southern regions and elderly people are more orientated towards Russia. Although the number of Ukrainians who support the landmark agreement with the EU has risen since last summer, it is still only at 45% according to a recent poll. Meanwhile, only 14% support joining the pro-Russian block.
Outraged by Ukraine's movements to push ahead with the EU deal, Russia applied trade sanctions against a number of Ukrainian goods earlier this year, including pipes and chocolate. In late October, Russia introduced new customs procedures hampering customs clearance for trucks exporting goods from Ukraine, leading to traffic jams several miles long on the border. The Kremlin's point man on Ukraine even said that if the deal is signed, Russia could cease to recognise Ukraine's status as a state.
Petro Poroshenko, a businessman and former minister whose confectionery company Roshen had its products banned by Russia in late July, said on a TV show that after the Russian ban, purchases of Roshen sweets in Ukraine increased by 13%, and there were calls to boycott Russian goods across Ukraine.
But in recent weeks, authorities seem to have yielded to Russian pressure. On 9 November, Yanukovych visited Putin in Moscow, a trip made in almost complete secrecy. A few days later, Ukraine's parliament, where the majority of seats are controlled by the pro-presidential Party of Regions, failed to pass the three laws remaining to fulfil the demands posed by Brussels in order to successfully sign the deal. On the same day Ukraine's prime minister, Mykola Azarov, said that the normalisation of relations with Russia was "issue number one for national policy".
"These signals from the ruling party show that some proposals came from Russia, and they were quite significant," says Oleksandr Sushko, research director at the Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation in Kiev. He suggested that the incentives could include promises of cheaper gas, favourable loans or personal advantages for Yanukovych. "The ruling party would like the EU to react to this and soften its demands."
European leaders have made it clear that Ukraine needs to free Tymoshenko, an icon of the 2004 Orange Revolution against fraudulent elections that ultimately prevented Yanukovych from assuming the presidency. After losing to Yanukovych by just a few per cent in 2010, Tymoshenko was put on trial and sentenced to seven years in jail for exceeding her authority as prime minister, in a case widely seen as an attempt by the president to oust his political rival.
European mediators have promoted the idea of sending Tymoshenko, who suffers from severe back pain, to Germany for medical treatment, as a compromise allowing Yanukovych to save face. But his party has so far blocked any attempts to pass the bill in parliament. A further attempt to do so on Tuesday was postponed until Thursday. Oleksandr Yefremov, leader of the Party of Regions parliamentary faction said there is only a 50% chance that this law as well as two other laws needed for the signing of the EU deal would be passed this week.
Sushko said Yanukovych is hoping Europe agrees to sign the deal without freeing Tymoshenko and also grants Ukraine financial assistance. "This is a risky game, in which both Ukraine and Europe may lose to Putin," he said.
Russia's belligerence has given the deal symbolic importance for Brussels as well as Kiev, and as EU officials have begun to realise that Tymoshenko may not be released in time, there are some who want to press ahead anyway, to avoid Ukraine slipping back into Russia's orbit. It would be an embarrassing climbdown, given how many times European leaders have stressed that the agreement is impossible without her release, but if at a dinner during the summit next week Yanukovych gives his word that he will release her in the coming months, a last-minute compromise arrangement could indeed be possible.
Poroshenko, who is also an opposition MP, said he was still optimistic on Ukraine's chances of signing the historic pact with the EU. "If it doesn't happen, Ukraine will lose the trust of the entire world," he said. "I believe that common sense should win through." Reported by guardian.co.uk 10 hours ago.