The great maneuvers on the Ukrainian front continue. The European Union today signed a new agreement with Kiev, while Russia announced the completion of the annexation of Crimea and the port of Sevastopol.
Gathered in Brussels for the European Council, the leaders of the twenty-eight EU countries signed with Ukrainian premier Arseniy Yatsenyuk the political part of the association agreement which had been offered to the previous government in Kiev and whose halt, in November, had sparked street protests that culminated in the ouster of pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych.
Political support will be accompanied by economic support: on Wednesday the European Commission proposed to send aid for one billion euros. It will be a medium-term loan to help Kiev out of the crisis. Furthermore, in line with the US, the EU added 12 new names to the blacklist of Russian officials affected by sanctions and threatened "far-reaching" consequences in case of further Russian initiatives to destabilize Ukraine. In the United States, meanwhile, the credit card giants Visa and Mastercard have interrupted payment services in favor of customers of various Russian banks.
Despite everything, the Kremlin is going its own way. President Vladimir Putin has assured that for now there will be no other responses to the EU and US measures. But, flanked by the chairmen of the Duma and the Senate (the Russian Federation Council), he also promulgated the annexation of the Republic of Crimea and the port of Sevastopol to Russia.
The number one in Moscow signed the package of laws which legally ratifies the incorporation of the two new subjects during a solemn ceremony in the Catherine the Great Hall, in the Kremlin, also decreeing the creation of a new federal district.
While the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, is pushing from Kiev for a peaceful and diplomatic solution to the crisis, European leaders have asked the Commission to draw up a plan by June to reduce the EU bloc's energy dependence on Russian imports. 30% of the gas that the Union imports from outside comes from Russia and, of this percentage, most reaches the EU territory through Ukraine, which is the main transit state.
