Ukraine signs landmark agreement with E.U.
By Michael Birnbaum June 27 at
6:48 PM
KIEV, Ukraine
— Shrugging off Russian threats and a burgeoning civil war, Ukraine signed a landmark trade deal Friday
binding it to the European Union, a
monumental step that came in defiance of months of Kremlin efforts to prevent
the country from turning westward.
The move prompted a top Russian
diplomat to warn immediately of “serious consequences” for Ukraine. A
cease-fire that has brought some measure of calm to the country’s roiling east
was extended until Monday, and E.U. leaders hinted that they would slap more
sanctions on Russia
if it does not take steps to achieve peace by that deadline.
The document signed Friday was the
same one that was rejected in November by Ukraine’s then-president, Viktor
Yanukovych. That decision sparked months of protests by pro-Western Ukrainians,
a crackdown by Yanukovych and his eventual ouster in February, generating the
highest tensions between the West and Russia since the Cold War.
More than 100 protesters died in Kiev under the blue and
yellow banner of the European Union when they took to the streets to demand
that Yanukovych reconsider his last-minute decision — made under heavy Russian
pressure — to reject the agreement. Hundreds more Ukrainians and dozens of
Russians have died in violence in eastern Ukraine
since April, when pro-Russian separatists seized government buildings and
territory in an effort to align themselves with Russia rather than the European
Union.
More than 160,000 Ukrainians have
been displaced from their homes since the start of the conflict, the U.N.
refugee agency said Friday.
Friday is “maybe the most
important day for my country after independence day” following the 1991 breakup
of the Soviet Union, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said as he signed the
deal in Brussels, using the pen he said Yanukovych would have used to sign it
in November. “All of us would have wished to sign the agreement under
different, more comfortable circumstances. On the other hand, the external
aggression faced by Ukraine
is another strong reason for this crucial step.”
Two other former Soviet republics,
Georgia and Moldova, also signed
the telephone-book-thick trade deals with the European Union on Friday, in the
face of Russian threats of tough consequences if they did so. The agreements
will require them to enact economic reforms, as well as to be more transparent
in how they operate — measures that may reduce the corruption that has plagued
all three societies since they gained independence.
Russia has said it views the expansion of E.U. ties to its border
as Western encroachment on a region that has long been within the Kremlin’s
sphere of influence, particularly Ukraine, which Russians see as the
cradle of their civilization. Russia
has sought to enlist those countries in the Eurasian Union, its competing
vision of an alliance based on values dominated by Moscow and free of Western influence.
“The anti-constitutional coup in Kiev and attempts to artificially impose a choice between
Europe and Russia on the
Ukrainian people have pushed society toward a split and painful confrontation,”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in Moscow
on Friday, calling for a swift return to peace.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister
Grigory Karasin said the deal would “no doubt . . . have serious
consequences,” Russia’s
Interfax news agency reported.
E.U. leaders — along with those of
Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova
— have said that the deal does not constitute a challenge to Russia.
The agreements will open the vast
28-nation E.U. market, with its 504 million residents, to tariff-free exports
from the three countries in exchange for gradual work toward bringing
regulations up to European standards. Leaders hope to follow the model of Poland and the Baltic nations, former Eastern
bloc states that are now E.U. members and whose economies have grown
significantly in the 23 years since the breakup of the Soviet
Union. Ukraine,
Georgia and Moldova, by
contrast, have struggled.
The European Union has said that Ukraine could boost its annual trade by $1.4
billion through the deal, although that would be offset by the tariffs Russia has
threatened to impose.
The agreement makes no promises of
eventual full E.U. membership, a step the three countries have said they want
to take. E.U. leaders have been cautious about committing to that measure,
which would mean opening their labor market to the countries’ citizens. With 46
million residents, Ukraine
is more populous than all but five of the E.U. countries.
Early Saturday, Poroshenko
extended a temporary cease-fire until Monday night after a Friday deadline
passed without a peace deal.
E.U. leaders decided against new
sanctions against Russia,
but they gave Moscow
until Monday to push rebels toward peace, suggesting they may impose sanctions
if it fails to do so. They called for Russia
to help implement Poroshenko’s peace plan, ensure that separatists hand back captured
Ukrainian border checkpoints and release a final team of captured observers
from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
White House press secretary Josh
Earnest said Friday that the Obama administration supports the E.U. demands. He
would not say what would happen if those actions weren’t taken by Monday but
said the likelihood of sanctions would increase.
“We have signaled a clear
willingness to act with partners and allies to further isolate Russia,” he
said. “Additional unhelpful action will lead to additional economic costs.”
Russia annexed Ukraine’s
autonomous Crimea region in March after pro-Russian separatists there staged an
independence referendum, and Kiev has accused Moscow of aiding the separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The E.U. agreements are
“milestones in the history of our relations and of Europe
as a whole,” European Council President Herman
Van Rompuy said at Friday’s ceremony. “In Kiev and elsewhere, people gave their lives
for this closer link to the European Union. We will not forget them.”
Russia has leaned hard on its neighbors not to sign the deals,
called “association agreements.” It banned imports of Moldovan wine last year,
cut off the flow of natural gas to Ukraine last week and said it would
raise tariffs on imports from all three countries in response to the deals.
Those steps are likely to impose
major economic hardships on the countries, which remain closely tied to Russia as an
export market. Armenia,
another former Soviet republic that was due to sign the agreement, reversed
course in September after intense Russian lobbying.
Moldova and Georgia,
like Ukraine, face
pro-Russian separatist movements on their soil, and officials in all three
countries have expressed fears that Russia will stoke tensions even
further following the E.U. deal. Russia
went to war with Georgia in
2008 in the breakaway region of South Ossetia,
and Russian soldiers are stationed as peacekeepers in the breakaway Moldovan
region of Transnistria.
“This is a civilizational choice,”
said Oleksiy Haran, a professor of comparative politics at the National
University of Kiev-Mohyla Academy, referring to Friday’s agreement. “Especially
now, when you have Russian aggression against its strategic partner.”
Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report.
Ukraine
Viktor F.
Yanukovich was the president of the Ukraine,
and is a Davis Manafort client.
Note: Richard H. Davis
is a managing director at the Davis
Manafort, and a trustee at the Committee
for Economic Development.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Committee for Economic Development, the Aspen Institute (think tank), and the Human Rights Watch.
George Soros
was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, a
benefactor for the Human Rights Watch,
is the founder & chairman for the Open
Society Foundations, and a board member for the International Crisis Group.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Atlantic Council of the United
States (think tank), and the Human Rights Watch.
Stuart E. Eizenstat
was a trustee at the Committee for
Economic Development, the U.S.
ambassador for the European Union,
and is a director at the Atlantic
Council of the United States
(think tank).
C.
Boyden Gray is a director at the Atlantic
Council of the United States
(think tank), and was a U.S.
ambassador for the European Union.
Javier
Solana was the high representative for common foreign & security policy
for the European Union, is a trustee
at the Aspen Institute (think tank),
a director at the Human Rights Watch,
and a board member for the International
Crisis Group.
Mark
Eyskens is a board member for the International
Crisis Group, and was the prime minister of Belgium.
Herman van
Rompuy was the prime minister of Belgium,
and is the president of the European
Union.
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