EU suspends trade talks with Ukraine

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EU suspends trade talks with Ukraine

The European Union seems to have lost patience with Ukraine, halting work on a trade and political pact with Ukraine. EU enlargement chief Stefan Fuele said on Twitter the words and deeds of Yanukovich and his government on the deal were "further and further apart".

Ukranians have been protesting against their government’s stance on the deal, and Yanukovich's decision not to sign the EU pact at a summit last month and concentrate instead on closer ties with Russia.

The EU had kept its offer on the table but Fuele said on Sunday the Ukrainian government's subsequent arguments on the terms of the deal had "no grounds in reality". "Work on hold," he added. Fuele's words suggested the EU has lost patience with Kiev's demands for financial aid and was irritated at the way the bloc was being forced to take part in a 'bidding war' with Russia over Ukraine.

The focus is now on a visit Yanukovich is due to make to Moscow next Tuesday to tie up trade agreements with the Kremlin to help the distressed Ukrainian economy. The opposition fears he may take the first steps towards joining a Moscow-led customs union, together with Belarus and Kazakhstan, which they see as an attempt by President Vladimir Putin to re-create the Soviet Union.

"He might as well stay in Moscow and not come back to Kiev if a customs union agreement is signed," declared an opposition leader and former economy minister Arseny Yatsenyuk. "We'll give him a really warm welcome if he sells out Ukraine."

Yanukovich may be attempting to keep the attention of both Moscow and Brussels to strike as good a deal as possible to handle its huge debt and outstanding gas payments to Moscow. But it is a hazardous manoeuvre running the risk of alienating both parties.

The anti-government protesters received powerful encouragement as U.S. Senator John McCain addressed the crowd on Kiev's Independence Square, telling them their destiny lay in Europe. "We are here to support your just cause, the sovereign right of Ukraine to determine its own destiny freely and independently. And the destiny you seek lies in Europe," said McCain, a leading Republican voice on U.S. foreign policy.

McCain, who met the trio of opposition leaders — the former boxing champion Vitaly Klitschko as well as Yatsenyuk and Tyahnybok — said, "We want to make it clear to Russia and Vladimir Putin that interference in the affairs of Ukraine is not acceptable to the United States."

Speaking to media after addressing crowds, he said news of Brussels suspending talks with Kiev was "very disturbing".