Summit canceled as Ukraine isolation deepens over treatment of Tymoshenko
(Read article summary)Ukraine was slated to host a summit this week, but with a dozen European leaders boycotting in protest of Kiev's treatment of Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine opted to cancel it instead.
Moscow
In a stinging humiliation that underscores Ukraine's increasing isolation, President Viktor Yanukovych today bowed to a boycott by a dozen European leaders angry over treatment of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, indefinitely postponing a prestigious summit meeting it was to have hosted this week in the Crimean resort of Yalta.
"Due to the fact that a number of European heads of states are unable to attend the summit of presidents of the Central European Countries in Yalta, Ukraine found it reasonable to postpone it until a later date," Alexander Dykusarov, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in a terse statement.
The event was meant to showcase Ukraine's growing integration into the European community, and to set the stage for Ukraine's co-hosting, along with Poland, of the Euro 2012 soccer championships – a huge event in the life of all Europeans – next month.
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Instead, the growing impression is that Ukraine is falling out of the European orbit and drifting back into Moscow's embrace.
