Ukraine under pressure at EU-Russia tug-of-war summit

Ukraine was pressed to choose sides today as an EU summit designed to draw six ex-Soviet states into the Western fold opened today amid a tough East-West tussle over influence.
Diplomats told AFP that pre-summit talks in the frosty Lithuanian capital between Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and EU leaders Herman Van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso -- respectively presidents of the EU Council and European Commission -- had not produced significant results.
"There was no progress," said a diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity. Yanukovych had requested extra EU funds to help the nation's struggling economy and demanded three-way talks between the EU, Russia and Ukraine on trade.

The EU however has repeatedly refused to even consider trilateral talks on trade, with one senior EU official saying this week "it would be like inviting China to the table at talks to agree an EU-US free trade deal."
West German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of the few EU leaders to speak as she went into a summit dinner at around 1800 GMT, said: "I have little hope of a deal (with Ukraine) this time, but the door remains open."
The summit originally was to have crowned an ambitious five-year bid by the European Union to reach out to states on its eastern flank with the signature of trade and political deals with three of the six former Soviet states.

But days before, Ukraine, the biggest prize, caved in to Moscow, turning its back on the West.

Kiev's surprise decision to scrap the landmark accord with the EU has unleashed a war of words between East and West recalling Cold War days and sparked some of the biggest protests seen in Ukraine in a decade.
Brussels says the deal is "still on the table" despite the rebuff and Kiev says it could even still sign it.
As pro-EU Ukrainians took to the streets demanding Yanukovych side with the West and turn away from Moscow, even his arch-foe, jailed former premier Yulia Tymoshenko, said she would rather stay behind bars than see the country go East.

EU nations concerned that Ukrainian opposition politicians are increasingly targeted by its prosecutors had asked she be released for medical treatment abroad.
"I passionately ask you to sign the agreement on Friday without any hesitation and conditions including those that are related to my release," Tymoshenko said in a message from jail.
"It's necessary to free Ukraine," she said.