WASHINGTON, March 13 (RIA Novosti) – Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Kiev hopes to sign political chapters of an association agreement with the European Union next week.
“I am sure that next week Ukraine will sign the political part of the association agreement and take a firm step to make Ukraine part of the European Union,” the UNIAN news agency quoted Yatsenyuk as saying.
Yatsenyuk held a bilateral meeting with US President Barack Obama in the Oval Office of the White House Wednesday to find a peaceful resolution to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
Mass opposition protests erupted across the country in November after President Viktor Yanukovych rejected an association agreement and trade pact with the EU, opting instead for closer ties with Russia.
Though the demonstrations were mostly peaceful to begin with, clashes between protesters and police intensified in January and peaked on February 18, when dozens of people were killed. Many of them, including some police officers, had been fatally shot.
The Ukrainian parliament impeached Yanukovych in late February and called for an early presidential election in May. The ousted president has called the move an illegal coup and insisted that he remains the country’s lawful head of state.
A group of US senators led by John McCain will travel to Ukraine on Thursday to meet with leaders of its interim government, amid tensions over the southern Ukrainian region of Crimea that pushes for a referendum on joining Russia.
Russian lawmakers adopted a resolution in late January slamming foreign politicians for what they say is interference in Ukraine. Criticism of foreign influence appeared to be a reference to visits to Kiev by a number of top European and US politicians and diplomats.
In December, McCain addressed a crowd of anti-government supporters in Kiev, pledging broad US support for the pro-European movement. Earlier that same month, US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland visited the epicenter of the protest movement and handed out bread to demonstrators.
