The European Parliament's monitoring mission – former European Parliament President Pat Cox and former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski – have expressed their disappointment at the Ukrainian government's decision to suspend the preparations for the signing of the Association Agreement with the EU.

"At the end of our 27th mission visit to Ukraine, we express our deep disappointment at the unilateral decision of the Ukrainian government to postpone the signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union. We take note of the Prime Minister's remarks on the stressed state of economy and the dramatically increased pressure from Russia in recent weeks," reads the mission's statement, the text of which was made available to Interfax-Ukraine.

We take note of remarks by Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov on the stressed state of economy and the dramatically increased pressure from Russia in recent weeks, the mission members said.

"There has been enormous effort made by the European Union to work with Ukraine over the last 18 months, not least by this mission. The time-out formula now decided by the Ukrainian authorities is not without clear downside risks, is likely to last for considerable time and the process, if and when renewed, will be complicated by the decision made today," reads the statement.

The mission intends tomorrow morning to return to the Verkhovna Rada and then travel to Kharkiv to meet with Tymoshenko.