By JIM HEINTZ and RAF CASERT
Pro-European Union activists are trained to resist police inside their tent camp at Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013. Ukraine was thrown into crisis last month when President Viktor Yanukovych suddenly backed away from a long-awaited political and economic agreement with the European Union, deciding to focus instead on restoring trade ties with Russia. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Viktor Yanukovych, Catherine Ashton
Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych, left, greets EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton prior their talks in Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013. At least, European Union leaders can count on support from the tens of thousands of demonstrators who throng the center of Kiev on a regular basis as a tool to pressure Yanukovych to change his mind. (AP Photo/ Mykhailo Markiv, Pool)
Ukraine Protests
Pro-European Union activists warm themselves near a bonfire during a rally in Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013. Ukraine was thrown into crisis last month when President Viktor Yanukovych suddenly backed away from a long-awaited political and economic agreement with the European Union, deciding to focus instead on restoring trade ties with Russia. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Ukraine Protests
Pro-European Union activists activists are trained to resist police inside their tent camp in the Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013. Ukraine was thrown into crisis last month when Yanukovych suddenly backed away from a long-awaited political and economic agreement with the European Union, deciding to focus instead on restoring trade ties with Russia. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Ukraine Protests
A Pro-European Union activist reinforces the barricades around their tent camp in the Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013. Ukraine was thrown into crisis last month when Yanukovych suddenly backed away from a long-awaited political and economic agreement with the European Union, deciding to focus instead on restoring trade ties with Russia. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Ukraine Protests
Pro-European Union activists wearing EU and U.S. national flags walk through the Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013. Opposition leaders in Ukraine rejected President Viktor Yanukovych’s offer of talks Wednesday, saying they will not sit down with him until he fires his government and releases all arrested demonstrators. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Ukraine Protests
A pro-European Union activist drinks tea to warm himself near a bonfire in St. the Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery in Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013. The Church’s Mikhailovsky monastery sheltered and tended to protesters after police swept the square on Sunday, Dec. 1, 2013, causing injuries. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Ukraine Protests
Pro-European Union activists prepare a banner that reads “Ukraine Freedom or Death!” inside of the occupied city council building in Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013. The withdrawal of riot police from two areas in Ukraine’s capital is raising opposition hopes that three weeks of escalating protests have begun to erode police support for President Viktor Yanukovych and his government. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Prev 1 of 8 Next
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian officials were heading Thursday to Brussels for talks with the European Union as the bloc’s foreign policy chief said the country’s embattled president “intends to sign” at some point a trade and cooperation agreement he rejected last month.
Demonstrators angry over President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to shelve the long-anticipated agreement will be watching the meeting closely, worried that the leader could instead sign an agreement to join a Russia-led customs union when he and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet next week.
Yanukovych appears to be in a tough corner. As protesters furious over his decision to turn away from the EU clog the center of Kiev, he appears to be leaving his options open for the best deal he can get from his economically troubled country’s powerful suitors.
Russia has put heavy pressure on Ukraine to join its bloc, which also includes Belarus and Kazakhstan. Opponents say the bloc effectively tries to recreate the Soviet Union.
Yanukovych has said he is still open to the EU association agreement if terms can be worked out that provide more aid to Ukraine, which is concerned about the impact of losing trade with Russia. The talks between the EU and the Ukrainian delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Arbuzov could bring clarity on whether such aid is possible.
The Kiev protests swelled to hundreds of thousands after police violently broke up two early rallies. Demonstrators are riding a wave of high morale after riot police stood down from two confrontations with protesters on Wednesday.
Squadrons of helmeted police deployed at the protesters’ tent camp in Independence Square and at the protester-occupied city hall, but left hours later in the face of demonstrator defiance.
Protesters are reinforcing their positions in Kiev’s center, erecting sizeable new barricades across streets leading to Independence Square.
EU foreign policy head Catherine Ashton, who talked with Yanukovych and opposition figures in Kiev this week, said it was clear that the short-term economic and financial issues Ukraine faces can be alleviated by signing the deal, which she said would bring in fresh investment from EU nations.
“Look, Yanukovych made it clear to me that he intends to sign the association agreement,” Ashton said on arrival for a meeting in Brussels early Thursday after her visit to Kiev.
Ashton said Ukraine’s economic problems “can be addressed by the support that not only comes from the EU institutions, but actually by showing that he has a serious economic plan in signing the association agreement.”
The signature on the EU association agreement “will help to bring in the kind of investment that he needs,” she said.
Ukrainians in the east look more favorably on closer ties with their giant neighbor. Yanukovych, who is seeking a bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund to keep Ukraine from going bankrupt, is sensitive to the economic disruption that trade disputes with Russia can cause.
______
Casert reported from Brussels.
