Ukrainian leader tacks back towards EU from Russia
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, denied yesterday that his country's EU ambitions had been put on the back burner, insisting that Ukraine's "European choice" remained an "unchanged priority for his government".
His choice of words suggested a very deliberate attempt to counter claims that Ukraine's hopes of EU membership had been sacrificed to a rapprochement with Russia.
His remarks were given extra weight by the setting: the opening of an annual Europe forum at the Livadia Palace in Yalta, where Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin carved up Europe in 1945.
The decision of the Ukrainian President not only to follow his pro-Western predecessor, Viktor Yushchenko, in opening the forum, but to share the platform with the recently elected President of Poland, Bronislaw Komorowski, was seen as a telling – and unexpected – statement about Ukraine's foreign policy direction.
With Mr Yanukovych as the pro-Russian president, who has steered Ukraine back towards closer relations with Moscow, the widespread assumption had been that Ukraine had shelved its hopes of EU membership. Yesterday's speech made it clear Ukraine's EU ambitions are very much alive.
Even as the Ukrainian President was reaffirming his country's EU aims, the Constitutional Court in Kiev handed down a ruling that seemed to convey a different message. In response to an appeal by the Party of the Regions, Mr Yanukovych's party, the court declared the 2004 Constitution unlawful. That Constitution, passed in the wake of the Orange Revolution, had redistributed power between the President and Parliament, to the benefit of the latter.
The decision was seen by Ukraine's opposition groups as a defeat for democracy. They suggested the country was on a fast track to authoritarianism.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments