EU ready to help Ukraine financially if association agreement is signed - opposition leader
Arseniy Yatseniuk, leader of the opposition Batkivschyna (Fatherland) opposition party's parliamentary faction, claims that the European Union will be ready to provide Ukraine with financial assistance after the association agreement is signed.
"The European Union's position is more clear-cut than ever before - Europe will help Ukraine financially if it [Ukraine] signs the association agreement. This aid will be intended for Ukraine, not the government," Yatseniuk said at a press briefing at the National Resistance Headquarters press center in Kyiv on Wednesday.
"Russia is ready to offer a political discount on gas purchases, not an economic one, if [Ukrainian President] Viktor Yanukovych cancels our agreement, which makes Ukraine a part of the European energy community," he aid.
If a choice is made in favor of such a scenario, Russia's gas giant Gazprom will effectively be able to reinstate its control over Ukraine, Yatseniuk said.
"This is how a political discount will be granted," he said.
The opposition asks European partners not to allow Ukraine to withdraw from the Third Energy Package, Yatseniuk said.
