If Ukraine had signed an association agreement with the European Union in its current shape, it would have faced social collapse and bankruptcy within months, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said.
“Let’s imagine how the events would have developed if there had not
been these agreements [between President Viktor Yanukovych and Russian
President Vladimir Putin] and if we had not made the hard but necessary
decision a month ago about suspending the process of signing the
[association] agreement [with the EU] and postponing it,” Azarov said at
a government meeting on Wednesday.
“Following several days of loud applause on the event of signing [the
agreement], cruel reality would have engulfed Ukraine,” he said.
“Already today we would have had to comply with the International
Monetary Fund’s requirements, that is, double the tariffs for housing
and utilities, dramatically devalue the national currency (by the way,
forget about this now), minimize budget expenses, cancel government
support for the agricultural sector, freeze salaries, pensions, and
social allowances or even reduce some of them,” Azarov said.
Ukraine would also have to pay an exorbitant price for natural gas,
close industrial enterprises, and the heating of cities would have to be
suspended amid winter, he said.
“I am asking openly: What would Ukraine have faced? The answer is
obvious: bankruptcy and social collapse. This is the New Year’s gift
that the Ukrainian people would have had in this case,” he said.
On November 21, the Ukrainian government decided to suspend
preparations for the signing of an association agreement with the EU. On
the same day, people gathered on Independence Square to protest against
the decision.
The agreement was not signed at the Eastern Partnership summit in
Vilnius on November 29. Berkut riot police units forcibly dispersed a
rally of supporters of Ukraine’s integration with the European Union on
Independence Square in Kyiv at about 0400 on November 30. Thirty-five
protesters were brought to the Shevchenkivsky district police
department. As many people were later reported to have sought medical
attention.
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians joined an opposition-led
demonstration on December 1 in defiance of a court ban on holding mass
events on Kyiv’s Independence Square, European Square and outside of
administrative buildings.
Pro-EU rallies currently continue outside the Kyiv mayor’s office, the House of Trade Unions and on Independence Square.
