Ukraine signs EU Trade Pact defying Russia

Saturday, June 28th, 2014

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BRUSSELS: Coming as a defiant blow for the Kremlin, Ukraine President Petro O. Poroshenko signed a extensively delayed trade pact with Europe that Moscow bitterly opposes. He also declared that he would like Ukraine to become a full member of the European Union one day.

Taking this step, President Poroshenko, a confectionery billionaire tycoon, raised a risky bet on the West that has cost Ukraine hundreds of lives and the loss of their Crimean peninsula to Russia. It also set off a low-level civil war on its eastern border and the region near it.

Signing the trade pact European Union headquarters at Brussels, the new leader has revived a deal whose refusal last November by the then president Viktor F. Yanukovych began months of pro-European protests in Ukrainian capital, Kyiv and rammed the West into the biggest test of wills with Russia since Cold War.
The unrest overthrew Mr. Yanukovych and compelled pro-Russian activists to insist on an annexation by Russia in Crimea and the eastern region of Donetsk.

In May, Mr. Poroshenko won Ukraine’s presidential elections filling the post left vacant after Mr. Yanukovych fled to Russia said that it was a historic date for Ukraine.

Taking a dig at Mr. Yanukovych, he said that he signed the agreement with the same pen that his predecessor could have used to sign it, before he changed his mind due to pressure from Moscow which set up his own downfall.

The conclusion of the association agreement between E.U. and Ukraine is a grave setback for Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and his goal of reclaiming Russian influence in the ‘near abroad’ – term Moscow uses for former Soviet Union territories.

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