UKRAINE: Ukrainians rally in central Kiev, demanding that their country forge closer ties with Europe instead of joining Russian Customs Union

Record ID: 213852

  • Title: UKRAINE: Ukrainians rally in central Kiev, demanding that their country forge closer ties with Europe instead of joining Russian Customs Union
  • Date: 20th January 2013
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF PEOPLE UNFOLDING GIGANTIC UKRAINIAN FLAG STATUE ON SQUARE PEOPLE HOLDING FLAG AND MARCHING OFF SQUARE MAN SHOUTING 'GLORY TO UKRAINE' INTO LOUDSPEAKER VARIOUS OF PEOPLE MARCHING PEOPLE GATHERED WITH FLAG TO HEAR SPEAKER VARIOUS OF MAN ARRANGING MAP SHOWING UKRAINE AS A PART OF THE EUROPEAN UNION WOMAN WITH WREATH ON HEAD HOLDING SIGN (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) PARLIAMENT DEPUTY IVAN ZAYATS, SAYING: "Our future is Europe, our future is the European Union. And we are categorically against the trade union (with the former Soviet Union) and we are categorically against eastern integration. Glory to Ukraine!" PROTESTERS HOLDING FLAG (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) MARCH PARTICIPANT VIKTOR GORBAL, SAYING: "Even in the east and south Ukrainians want to join the European Union more than the trade union (with the former Soviet Union). Because we lived with this trade union exactly 20 years ago." VARIOUS OF RALLY IN PROGRESS
  • Embargoed: 4th February 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Ukraine
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA651K3RQ64Q0WKKUMI1DMBBRB8
  • Story Text: Some 200 opposition supporters rallied in central Kiev on Saturday (January 20) calling for their country to forge closer ties with Europe.
    Rally participants carried banners with slogans such as 'Ukraine to Europe', and unfurled an enormous Ukrainian flag, which they carried through city streets in a march.
    The theme of the rally centred around a topic of dispute for Ukraine in recent months involving Ukraine forging closer ties with the European Union or its post-Soviet neighbours to the east.
    Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to forge closer ties with the states of the former Soviet Union, whose collapse he has called "the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the century".
    He has already launched a free-trade zone between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, known as the Customs Union. Last year, Belarus received a huge discount on gas - it pays around $170 per 1,000 cubic metres of Russian gas, much lower than the $430 price for Ukraine, which is only an observer of the trade bloc.
    Moscow has invited Ukraine to join the Customs Union as part of a newly proposed gas deal, that would cut the price Ukraine pays for its energy intensive economy, which is heavily reliant on exports of steel and grain.
    But Kiev, seeking to boost its economic and political ties with Europe, has so far balked at joining the trade zone as that would make it more difficult to eventually follow the path of other ex-communist states to EU membership.
    "Our future is Europe, our future is the European Union. And we are categorically against the trade union (with the former Soviet Union) and we are categorically against eastern integration. Glory to Ukraine!" Ukrainian Parliament Deputy Ivan Zayats said at the rally.
    "Even in the east and south Ukrainians want to join the European Union more than the trade union (with the former Soviet Union). Because we lived with this trade union exactly 20 years ago," rally participant Viktor Gorbal told Reuters.
    Although Yanukovich has sought to align Ukraine's foreign policy with that of Russia since becoming president - for example, by abandoning the goal of joining the NATO alliance - Kiev continues to say that European integration remains a political priority for the post-Soviet republic.
    Ukraine has thus far refused to join the post-Soviet Customs Union as that would mean scrapping plans to sign a free trade agreement with the European Union.
    Ukraine's free trade deal with the EU has been agreed in principle, but was shelved after a court jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko on charges of abuse of office in 2011 - over the same 2009 gas deal Kiev is trying to renegotiate.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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