EU, US mull aid plan to resolve crisis in Ukraine
KYIV Europe and the United States on Monday mulled a financial aid plan as part of a political solution to Ukraine’s crisis while President Viktor Yanukovych returned to work after four days of sick leave.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who is expected in Kyiv this week, told the Wall Street Journal that the exact amount had not been decided yet but said “the figures won’t be small”.
She said the plan, which could be discussed at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on next Monday, would look at “what we need to do in different parts of the economy right now to make things better.”
Opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk said the minimum amount required was $15 billion — the same amount promised by Russia in a bailout that is now on hold during the standoff, with only $3 billion released to prop up Ukraine’s economy so far.
The Russian foreign ministry on Monday said Ukraine’s protesters should “renounce threats and ultimatums” after one opposition lawmaker called for the formation of “self-defence units”. Yatsenyuk, a former economy minister, said Russia had created “a mechanism that prevents Ukraine from integrating with the EU” by making it dependent on cheap gas supplies from the east.
The 39-year-old politician also said the possible Western aid would be linked to a broader deal including constitutional reforms to take away Yanukovych’s powers. “Right now everything is monopolised here,” he said.
A spokesman confirmed the president was back at work on Monday after suffering from “an acute respiratory infection” — seen by critics as a ploy to win time.
Activists meanwhile targeted the Kyiv offices of Germany’s Deutsche Bank, claiming that it was handling corruption money from Yanukovych’s inner circle.
Shouting “Bloody Money!” and holding up a banner saying: “Stop working with Yanukovych”, they laid out banknotes stained in blood outside the bank’s offices in the city.
Also on Monday, an injured Ukrainian protester whose account of torture has shocked Europe vowed to keep fighting for democracy in his homeland, as he received medical treatment in Lithuania.
“Although I have been destroyed physically, my spirit has not been broken,” Dmytro Bulatov said.
“I will keep fighting, I will move forward and seek democracy in Ukraine. I won’t back down,” he added.
He arrived in Vilnius hours after a Kyiv court ruled that he could leave the country for treatment.
According to analysts, Yanukovych is unlikely to move the army against protesters despite opposition warnings about an imminent intervention — mainly because the loyalty of rank-and-file soldiers could be in doubt.
“The core of the army is made up of young people who grew up in an independent Ukraine,” said Valentyn Badrak, director of the Research Centre for the Army, Demilitarisation and Disarmament in Kyiv.
“They are members of a younger generation that feels very close to the aspirations of the Maidan,” or Independence Square in the centre of Kyiv.
“The high command is made up mostly of officers and generals who grew up in Soviet times and they have a certain discipline, they are ready to obey any order,” he said.
But lower ranks “feel the financial and social difficulties” in Ukraine, he said.