Europe to ease Ukraine’s financial crunch by threats or bribes

EDITORIAL

A Dangerously Divided Ukraine

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

Published: December 11, 2013

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/12/opinion/a-dangerously-divided-ukraine.html?_r=0

Ukraine’s president, Viktor Yanukovich, took a tentative step toward defusing his country’s political turmoil earlier this week by convening a “round table” with former Ukrainian presidents to discuss possible responses to the protests engulfing the capital, Kiev. But he promptly negated any value in that gesture by ordering security police to clear the demonstrators’ encampment in Independence Square early Wednesday morning. Though the police appeared to pull back by midday, the confrontation plunges Ukraine deeper into crisis.

Secretary of State John Kerry, expressing the United States’ “disgust” with the use of force, said in a statement, “This response is neither acceptable nor does it befit a democracy.” Even Mr. Yanukovich’s allies in the Kremlin have said that they cannot offer Ukraine economic help until this political turmoil is resolved.

Mr. Yanukovich is a democratically elected president, but he undermined his legitimacy two weeks ago when his security forces used truncheons and tear gas against thousands of protesters enraged by his rejection of an economic deal with the European Union that could have opened the way to a brighter economic future.

Mr. Yanukovich bowed to Russia’s threats of retaliation against Ukrainian imports if Ukraine were to have reached an agreement with Europe. Russia, Ukraine’s largest trading partner, has also hinted at a possible $9 billion discount on Russian gas prices for Ukraine if it spurned Europe and joined a Russian-led regional economic bloc.

The European Union should not sit by while Russia offers payouts to get a stake in Ukraine’s political future. Meanwhile, China seeks to increase its own leverage on Ukraine by reportedly offering to invest $7 billion or more in that nation’s struggling economy. Europe should look for ways to ease Ukraine’s financial crunch, not by threats or bribes but by reasonable offers of economic relief.

At this point, only a negotiated political compromise between the government and the opposition — coupled with renewed trade talks with Europe that Mr. Yanukovich promises — might begin to resolve the conflict.

For months, the International Monetary Fund has refused to sign off on a nearly $15 billion bailout loan that Ukraine needs by March to refinance its external debt. The I.M.F. wants Ukraine to accept harsh conditions, including raising domestic gas prices and imposing strict budgetary austerity. Those conditions could also lead to more political upheaval.

Eventually, Ukraine will need help from one of its neighbors, Russia in the east or Europe in the west. With so much at stake, the European Union should be asking itself why not Europe and why not now?

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A version of this editorial appears in print on December 12, 2013, on page A38 of the New York edition with the headline: A Dangerously Divided Ukraine.