EU parliament chief puts trust in Ukrainian PM

EUobserver.com / Foreign Affairs

16.05.12 @ 17:42

 

By Andrew Rettman

BRUSSELS - EU-Ukraine diplomacy reached new heights of confusion during a visit by Prime Minister Mykola Azarov to Brussels on Tuesday (15 May) and Wednesday.
A few days before he came, EU Council chief Herman Van Rompuy had told him on the Euronews TV channel to "stay home." German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a speech to the Bundestag accused his boss, President Viktor Yanukovych, of running a Belarus-type "dictatorship."
Azarov came anyway.

EU ponders ‘losing Ukraine to Russia’ | EurActiv

EU ponders ‘losing Ukraine to Russia’ | EurActiv

Published 15 May 2012

Eurasina Union Putin Russia selective justice Tymoshenko Ukraine

EU ministers held an animated discussion in Brussels yesterday (14 May), evaluating the risks of “losing Ukraine to Russia” if too much pressure is put on the country over the treatment of imprisoned former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Meeting over lunch to discuss Ukraine, the Union’s foreign ministers failed to adopt common positions, but agreed that more should be done to work with civil society in Ukraine to defuse a loss of confidence in the country’s European perspective.
Diplomatic sources said ministers spoke openly about the risk that a tough line on Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich would push the country closer to Russia, eager to put flesh to its plans for a “Eurasian Union” comprising former Soviet states. Russia has also invited Ukraine to join its Customs Union with Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Bullying as Political Style Leads Ukraine to Isolation

By Irina Severin | 14.05.2012

Yulia Tymoshenko – a fierce  ex-prime-minister of Ukraine, known abroad as a heroine of the Orange Revolution and a "Gas Princess", after the scandal on allegedly being beaten in prison during “forceful transportation” to the hospital finally gets the treatment at the same hospital under observation of the German doctor.

The scandal caused obstruction of Ukraine at the West and still threatens Ukraine with isolation and, as a logical consequence, with joining Putin's “Eurasian Union”, designed as a substitute for the European Union in Russia’s fight for its “sphere of influence”. Without a permanent dialog with the EU there won't be any constrain for Ukraine’s drifting toward the Belarus kind of state, where any elections are meaningless from the start.

As the point of no return is not crossed yet, there is still a chance for the objective view on the situation. There are a lot of questions, which need straightforward answers before it is too late.