Ukraine’s political crisis dominated the summit between the European Union and Russia today (28 January), with Russian President Vladimir Putin assuring Ukrainians that Russia would honour a loan deal whatever government emerges in Kiev.

Putin also warned the EU not to become involved in brokering an agreement between the opposition and Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych. The Ukrainian prime minister, Mykola Azarov, today resigned in an effort to appease protestors who have come out almost daily onto the streets for over two months. The opposition, however, continues to call for Yanukovych’s resignation and new elections.

“The more intermediaries there are, the more problems there are,” Putin said. Minutes earlier, the presidents of the European Council and European Commission – Herman Van Rompuy and José Manuel Barroso – had said that the EU’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, was heading to Kiev to talk with political leaders.

The demonstrations in Ukraine began in November when Yanukovych announced that he would not sign trade and political agreements with the EU. He and Azarov later secured financial backing from Russia.

Yanukovych’s late change of plan led to the EU and Russia trading accusations of ‘blackmailing’ Ukraine. As a result, Van Rompuy and Barroso announced before today’s summit that they would use the chance to review the EU’s ‘strategic partnership’ with Russia, with EU officials describing the gathering as an opportunity to clear the air. Reflecting that aim, the EU abandoned the usual format of the twice-yearly summit, compressing the meeting into three hours and reducing the size of the entourages.

In a move that could be interpreted as a concession to Russia or as a further attempt to clear the air, Barroso and Van Rompuy said today that EU and Russian officials would hold regular meetings to discuss the implications of the trade and political deals that Ukraine did not sign with the EU.

Two other members of the EU’s Eastern Partnership programme – Georgia and Moldova – reached preliminary agreement on similar deals in November.

The potential free-trade deal with Ukraine, a sizeable industrial producer, has been a particular point of contention because of Russian claims that it could have provided a backdoor for European goods onto the Russian market. An EU official described that as “utter nonsense”.

The trade issue has become enmeshed in geopolitics, because Russia is currently in the process of establishing a Eurasian Customs Union, which it has invited Ukraine to join. A customs union would deprive Ukraine of the ability to set tariffs by itself. As a result, it would not be able to strike a bilateral free-trade agreement with the EU.

While the differences between the EU and Russia dominated the debate and the subsequent press conference, Putin was more muted in his comments than at many previous summits.

Both sides were anxious to project the impression that a new leaf would be turned at the next summit, on 3 June in Sochi. The EU said that the summit would see a re-launch of negotiations on a new agreement to frame the relationship. Putin suggested that deal could be completed at the Sochi summit, adding though, that such swift progress was unlikely.

The EU and Russia have been negotiating a ‘new basic agreement’, as it is called, for years. In the meantime, the relationship continues to be governed by a ‘partnership and co-operation agreement’ negotiated in the late Soviet period and in force since 1994. That agreement was due to expire in 2007, but has been rolled over each year.

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