Region: Yanukovych defiant over Tymoshenko

By Yuriy Onyshkiv

For the Kyiv Post

With one month to go before a crucial summit between Ukraine and the European Union, the presidents of Poland and Germany stepped up pressure on their Ukrainian counterpart, Viktor Yanukovych.

Reportedly because of foggy weather, the Ukrainian leader arrived six hours late to Wrocław, Poland, Nov. 15, where he was to join Poland's Bronisław Komorowski and Germany's President Christian Wulff in celebrating the anniversary of a local university.

Yet the delayed arrival did not free Yanukovych from yet another round of political warnings from two influential European leaders.

Pointing specifically to imprisoned opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, the European leaders warned continued political persecution and backsliding on democracy could jeopardize Ukraine's hopes of wrapping up free trade and association agreements with the EU at the Dec. 19 summit to be held in Kyiv.

"We hope Ukraine's leadership puts these principles [of democracy and rule of law] into practice and dispels existing doubts on this score," Wulff said after talks with Yanukovych.

"There are both achievements and obstacles [to Ukraine's EU integration hopes]," Komorowski said. He stressed that Poland, currently chair of the EU presidency and keen on keeping Kyiv out of Moscow's orbit, will remain one of the strongest proponents of Ukraine's European integration drive.

Yanukovych has been widely accused by the opposition and pro-democracy activists of masterminding Tymoshenko's arrest to sideline his main opponent. After talks with the European presidents, he admitted the Tymoshenko case posed a risk to his nation's EU aspirations.

"This issue is, without a doubt, one that hampers the likely ratification of these agreements by some countries," Yanukovych said. But "today we cannot predict how all this will end."

Yanukovych insisted, as in prior meetings with EU leaders this autumn, that he can't directly intervene in the situation. In his words, the fate of Tymoshenko, recently sentenced to seven years in prison on abuse-of-office charges, rests on the nation's independent courts and judges.

As uncertainty loomed over Tymoshenko's fate and Ukraine's future at large, EU leaders scrambled to find a policy to keep Europe's door open to Ukraine, so as to not punish the nation's 46 million citizens for the policies of current leaders.

"The aim is to save the agreement," said a source in Polish diplomatic circles.

With the memory still fresh of an oppressive communist rule that took orders from Moscow, Poland is hoping to avoid isolating Yanukovych, fearing such a move would push him closer toward the Kremlin.

The talks in Wrocław came amid reports Yanukovych was close to sealing a broad energy agreement with Russia that could include closer economic and political ties.

Two days after Yanukovych's talks in Wrocław, the Euopean Parliament's committee on foreign affairs adopted a recommendation to the 27-nation bloc's leadership on how to deal with Ukraine under existing circumstances.

"The EU-Ukraine association agreement should be signed by the end of 2011, but Ukraine must respect the rule of law and allow the opposition to participate fully in politics," reads a ruling adopted by a strong majority of committee members.

In their ruling, EU lawmakers underlined that a "failure to review former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's conviction would jeopardize the prospects of concluding and ratifying an EU-Ukraine association agreement. Yulia Tymoshenko and other opposition leaders must be allowed to exercise their right to participate fully in the political process now, and in the future."

Yuriy Onyshkiv can be reached at onyshkiv@kyivpost.com