Ukrainians protest Kyiv’s rebuff of EU
KYIV — About 1,000 people gathered in downtown Kyiv in the early morning hours on November 22 to protest the government’s decision to postpone signing of an Association Agreement with the European Union.
Several buses with security forces were also on the scene in the capital’s Independence Square at the gathering.
Opposition leaders Arsenyi Yatsenyuk, Vitali Klitschko, and Oleh Tyahnybok addressed the crowd and called for a further mass demonstration on November 24.
The government of President Viktor Yanukovych announced on November 21 that it would suspend the process of preparing the agreements.
Earlier in the day, parliament rejected proposed legislation to allowed jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to travel abroad for medical treatment. EU and U.S. officials expressed disappointment with Kyiv’s decision.
Klitschko, head of the UDAR opposition party, told protesters that with the November 21 decision, Yanukovych has lost his reputation in Europe.
“I do not know, and no one will ever know, for how much money Yanukovych sold the EU out,” he said. “He promised something to [European Commission President Jose Manuel] Barroso; he promised something to [Polish President Bronislaw] Komorowski, [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel. He made promises to everyone. I’m sure that this person did not have a reputation — and now does not have a reputation at all — in the European Union.”
Smaller demonstrations were held in other Ukrainian cities.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement: “This is a disappointment not just for the EU but, we believe, for the people of Ukraine,” but added the EU remains committed to the people of Ukraine.
The U.S. State Department issued a statement saying Washington “is convinced Ukraine’s integration with Europe is the surest course to economic prosperity and democracy.”
Pressure From Moscow
EU officials had hoped that Ukraine would sign the accord at an EU Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius next week.
Kyiv has been under tremendous economic and political pressure from Moscow in recent weeks. Russia has urged Ukraine not to sign the Association Agreement but instead to join the Russia-led Customs Union, which includes Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington on November 21, said Moscow has been “brutal” in its opposition to the Eastern Partnership.
“In the beginning perhaps not too many people took the Eastern Partnership seriously,” Bildt said. “But I think what we’ve seen in the last few weeks and months is that it has been taken exceedingly seriously, primarily in Moscow. Because we’ve seen an avalanche of overtly threatening statements against different countries, indicating what could be done or what would be done if they went ahead in the European direction. And some of it has been of a fairly brutal nature when it comes to the language that has been used.”
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He said he now expects Moscow to step up its pressure against Eastern Partnership members Moldova and Georgia, which are both expected to initial Association Agreements in Vilnius.
“I think we need to focus on what’s going to happen with Moldova and Georgia who are going to initial these agreements on Friday next week,” he said. “I expect the pressure to be now applied to Moldova…. I think it’s important that we are very strong in reaffirming our support to their rights to take their own independent decisions on the future they want to take. The same applies to Georgia.”
Polish member of the European Parliament Jarek Saryusz-Wolski told RFE/RL on November 21 that any agreement between Ukraine and the EU would have to wait until after Ukraine’s 2015 presidential election.
“The time to come back will be with a new president,” Saryusz-Wolski said. “And given it took so much time, it was so difficult to get those few laws through parliament, what about the 300 of them which will be needed to implement the Association Agreement?”