EU leaders yesterday signed an Association Agreement with the Ukrainian coupist government.
It is a watered-down version of the agreement that the overthrown President Yanukovych refused to sign, an action that saw the EU and the US organise armed fascist bands to bring down his government on February 22, 2014.
Eastern Ukraine and the Crimea then refused to accept the new coupist regime in Kiev. This led to the people of the Crimea holding a referendum to unite with Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday signed the law bringing Crimea within the Russian Federation.
The EU signed the deal with the Ukrainian coupists hours after announcing further targeted sanctions against Russia. It also announced that it would be signing similar agreements with Moldova and Georgia.
The EU Association Agreement is designed to give Ukraine’s interim leadership, under PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk, economic and political support.
It is already being said in the Ukraine that it will give support to the Ukrainian people the way that a rope supports a hanging man.
EU President Herman Van Rompuy said in a statement that the accord ‘recognises the aspirations of the people of Ukraine to live in a country governed by values, by democracy and the rule of law’.
Meanwhile, armed Maidan gangsers still occupy the centre of Kiev and mount armed patrols in the capital, assaulting those that they deem to be hostile, calling them ‘Russian agents’.
In Greece yesterday, workers were being assaulted by the police forcing through huge EU cuts. They told News Line to warn the people of Ukraine that the EU will treat them in exactly the same way.
Yatsenyuk, the Ukrainian interim Premier installed by the coup, said yesterday that this was a ‘historic day’, adding: ‘We want to be a part of the big European family and this is the first tremendous step in order to achieve for Ukraine its ultimate goal, as a full-fledged member.’
He urged that ‘the best way to contain Russia is to impose real economic leverage’.
Speaking at the end of the summit in Brussels, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was returning home ‘very happy’, as European leaders had been able to find a joint position on the Ukraine crisis.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron said that the best rebuke to Russia would be a strong and successful Ukraine.
However, Friday’s accord is not the full package that Yanukovych rejected in November – many parts will not be signed until after new presidential elections in May.
The most sensitive issues of trade integration with the EU are unsigned.
But in its Conclusions on Ukraine, published on Friday, the EU said it was committed to signing the remainder. The EU also said it would push ahead with similar cooperation deals with two former Soviet republics – Georgia and Moldova – in the summer.
The EU has also cancelled a summit with Russia in June and said member states would cancel regular bilateral summits. Friday’s signing came hours after the EU broadened its sanctions over Russia’s reunification with Crimea. It added 12 individuals to an earlier list of 21 who now face asset freezes and travel bans.
Ukraine’s ‘interim President’ Olexander Turchynov, after meeting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday, said Kiev would never accept a Crimea that was not part of Ukraine’s sovereign territory.
