Facing Russian Threat, Ukraine Halts Plans for Deals with E.U.

Pool photo by Andrew Kravchenko

Lawmakers in Ukraine's Parliament protested the decision on Thursday to suspend plans to sign pacts with the European Union.

MOSCOW — Under threat of crippling trade sanctions by Russia, Ukraine announced Thursday that it had suspended its plans to sign far-reaching political and trade agreements with the European Union and said it would instead pursue new partnerships with a competing trade bloc of former Soviet states.

The decision largely scuttles what had been the European Union's most important foreign policy initiative: an ambitious effort to draw in former Soviet republics and lock them on a trajectory of changes based on Western political and economic sensibilities. The project, called the Eastern Partnership program, began more than four years ago.

Ukraine's decision not to sign the agreements at a major conference next week in Vilnius, Lithuania, is a victory for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. He had maneuvered forcefully to derail the plans, which he regarded as a serious threat, an economic version of the West's effort to build military power by expanding NATO eastward. In September, similar pressure by Russia forced Armenia to abandon its talks with the Europeans.

European leaders reacted with fury and regret, directed at Kiev and Moscow. "This is a disappointment not just for the E.U. but, we believe, for the people of Ukraine," Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief, said in a statement. Calling the pact that Ukraine was walking away from "the most ambitious agreement the E.U. has ever offered to a partner country," Ms. Ashton suggested the country would suffer financially.

"It would have provided a unique opportunity to reverse the recent discouraging trend of decreasing foreign investment," she said, "and would have given momentum" to negotiations for more financial aid from the International Monetary Fund. Ukraine faces a growing economic crisis, and it is widely expected to need a major aid package soon.

Others were more pointed in blaming Russia. "Ukraine government suddenly bows deeply to the Kremlin," the Swedish foreign minister, Carl Bildt, wrote on Twitter. "Politics of brutal pressure evidently works."

In Brussels, Stefan Fule, the European Commission's senior official responsible for relations with neighboring countries, canceled a trip to Ukraine that he had announced just hours earlier, suggesting that officials saw little hope in reversing the decision. "Hard to overlook in reasoning for today's decision impact of #Russia's recent unjustified economic & trade measures," he wrote on Twitter.

Ukraine's announcement came in the form of a decree issued by the cabinet of ministers ordering the government "to suspend" preparations for concluding the agreements with Europe and instead begin planning for new negotiations with the European Union and Russia.

At virtually the same time, President Viktor F. Yanukovich, who was on a visit to Vienna, issued a statement saying, "Ukraine has been and will continue to pursue the path to European integration."

In a move emblematic of Ukraine's often inscrutable politics, Mr. Yanukovich barely acknowledged the developments in Kiev and, responding to a reporter's question about the pacts with Europe, said, "Of course, there are difficulties on the path."

Because Mr. Yanukovich was supposed to sign the accords in Vilnius, some officials seemed to hold out the faint possibility he might find a way to resurrect the agreements. Those hopes seemed to fade Thursday night as the reactions in Europe grew angrier, and Russia said it would gladly join in negotiations if the accords were postponed.

The decree by the cabinet of ministers followed the Ukrainian Parliament's overwhelming rejection of legislation that would have freed the country's jailed former prime minister, Yulia V. Tymoshenko, and allowed her to seek treatment in Germany for back problems. Ms. Tymoshenko is a bitter political rival of Mr. Yanukovich's.

The West has long criticized the conviction of Ms. Tymoshenko on abuse of authority charges and her seven-year prison sentence, saying they were a politically motivated effort to sideline her. Her release was widely viewed as a condition of signing the agreements, although the European Union never officially declared it to be a requirement.

The Parliament, which is controlled by Mr. Yanukovich's Party of Regions, defeated six different bills related to the treatment of prisoners that were intended to address Ms. Tymoshenko's case.

Opposition leaders in Parliament, including members of Ms. Tymoshenko's Fatherland party and leaders of the nationalist Svoboda party, accused Mr. Yanukovich of torpedoing Ukraine's chances for integration with Western Europe.

Andrew Higgins contributed reporting from Brussels, and Alison Smale from Berlin.

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