Ukraine's parliament Tuesday put off for another two days a debate on a bill to let jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko seek medical treatment abroad as the clock ran down to a crucial summit at which Kiev hopes to sign a historic EU deal. With the ruling party and opposition in the Verkhovna Rada struggling to find a compromise on the bill, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the EU of exerting "brazen" pressure on Ukraine to choose between Moscow and the West.
In a session personally attended by EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele, the Verkhovna Rada failed to even debate the bill that would allow Tymoshenko to seek medical treatment in Germany. But speaker Volodymyr Rybak announced that parliament would on Thursday debate four bills on treating convicts abroad, put forward by different factions, in what could be a last chance for Ukraine to agree the legislation in time.
Freeing Tymoshenko in some form is a crucial condition set by EU leaders for Ukraine to sign an Association Agreement - a first step to membership - at a summit in Vilnius on November 28-29.
Signing the Association Agreement would mark a historic break by Ukraine from Russia, its master both in the Tsarist and Soviet eras, which has been infuriated by the prospect of Kiev's close integration with the EU. The chances of parliament passing the legislation remained unclear, but pro-Tymoshenko opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk said there was no excuse for the ruling Regions Party of President Viktor Yanukovych to vote against it on Thursday.
"Get over your fear and on Thursday vote for these bills," he said, adding that the opposition was ready to vote for a text that suited the Regions Party. But Regions Party faction chief Olexander Efremov said there was still no agreement on a single text that could be voted on by the Rada.
Tymoshenko, the fiery opposition leader who rose to fame during the 2004 Orange Revolution and is an arch-rival of Yanukovych, was sentenced in 2011 to seven years in prison on abuse of power charges, prompting international criticism of the case as politically motivated. She is being treated for longstanding back problems in a hospital outside her jail, and Germany has offered her medical care.
EU leaders have made clear that Ukraine's signing of the agreement was still uncertain, with its fate in the hands of Yanukovych who has so far not publicly backed the moves to free Tymoshenko. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the Bundestag on Monday: "I have to say today that it is not yet certain whether Ukraine is willing to fulfil the criteria for a possible association agreement."
Yanukovych held talks Tuesday with Fuele in Kiev but no details emerged of what they discussed. The signing of the Association Agreement with the EU would be a painful blow to Putin's hopes of reviving links between ex-Soviet states, in particular through a Customs Union which already involves Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia but not Ukraine.
In the latest sign of Russia's ire, Lavrov accused the European Union of putting excessive pressure on states to choose between Moscow and the West. "You see fairly brazen pressure being put on states," Lavrov told reporters, complaining that Ukraine was being told by EU officials "that 'you have to choose between either going back to the past, or moving with us to the bright future'." Yanukovych is keen to see the charismatic Tymoshenko kept out of politics ahead of presidential polls in 2015 and has insisted that even if she goes abroad for treatment, her seven-year sentence for abuse of power should remain in place.
Cash-strapped Ukraine, a major transit route of Russian gas to Europe, also risks new conflicts with Russian gas giant Gazprom. Gazprom has twice interrupted shipments to Ukraine - once in January 2006 and then again in January 2009 - in moves that also threatened energy supplies to some central and western European countries at the height of winter heating seasons.