EU cancels Ukraine leader's visit to Brussels

The European Union decided Tuesday to cancel a visit by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych this week as relations sank to a new low following the jailing of ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko. Yanukovych was due to meet with EU president Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso in Brussels on Thursday, but Kiev's relations with Brussels deteriorated last week after Tymoshenko's jailing. The meeting "has been postponed to a later date when the conditions will be more conducive to making progress on the bilateral relations," Van Rompuy wrote on the Twitter micro-blogging website. "We would like to see progress on subjects such as law, the application of law, the independence of the judiciary, which are at the heart of our eastern partnership," European Commission spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde-Hansen told AFP. The EU was outraged last week when a Kiev court sentenced opposition leader Tymoshenko to seven years in jail for abuse of power in connection with a gas contract with Russia she signed in 2009. The bloc has since warned that the verdict risked having "profound implications," only to see Ukraine launch a new probe against the Orange Revolution leader over suspected embezzlement. Ukraine is hoping to sign off on an association agreement with the European Union at a December summit in Kiev, a first step towards membership. A European diplomat said the EU "does not plan to cancel the summit." The EU's decision to cancel this week's meeting came on the same day that Yanukovych was due to hold talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Donetsk, Ukraine. Kiev, which has made no secret of its European Union integration aspirations, has until now steadfastly resisted Russia's pressure. But analysts say the unprecedented crisis with the EU could make Ukraine more vulnerable to the Kremlin's advances.