Billionaire and pro-presidential Regions’ Party lawmaker Rinat Akhmetov says Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt are Ukraine’s true friends, following their visit to Donetsk on Nov. 23.
Akhmetov, owner of the Shakhtar football club and one of the main backers of President Viktor Yanukovych, invited ministers Sikorski and Bildt to watch a match between Shakhtar and Porto, a move widely viewed as an attempt to employ football diplomacy to salvage an association agreement between the European Union and Ukraine.
A summit is scheduled to take place in Kyiv on Dec. 19, when Ukraine once had hopes of signing trade and visa-liberalization agreements.
However, the EU recently warned Ukraine that the agreement might not be initialized by the end of the year unless obstacles are resolved.
Among them is the jailing of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who was sentenced to seven years in prison for exceeding her authority as prime minister when negotiating a gas agreement with Russia in January 2009. She and much of the Western world call the charges politically motivated.
Akhmetov seems to be pleased by the ministers’ visit, but didn’t give details.
“I can tell you with certainty that they are the true friends of Ukraine. I’m very pleased that the ministers came to Donetsk, visited the Donbass Arena – a stadium that will host Euro 2012,” Akhmetov’s press service quoted him as saying. “I’m confident that we will see again during Euro 2012 how much unites us and how little divides us.”
The EU Ambassador to Ukraine, Jose Manuel Pinto Teixeira, told Interfax-Ukraine news service that the association agreement between Ukraine and the EU might not be initialed by the end of this year.
According to the diplomat, it will the “agreement is initialed when all of the issues are resolved.”
The press release published by the Swedish Foreign Ministry ahead of the visit stated that Bildt was making the trip to Donetsk to discuss political issues and preparations for the Euro 2012 football championships.
Bildt’s press secretary did not elaborate on the visit and Sikorski’s press person did not immediately respond to the Kyiv Post’s inquiry.
Sweden’s foreign minister wrote in his twitter on Nov. 24 about “new talks on Ukraine and Europe during the day.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Yuriy Onyshkiv can be reached at [email protected]
