In the past few months, world news have been dominated by events happening in the Ukraine apart from the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Malaysian flight MH370 of which there is still no trace.  Not a day goes by without reports coming out of the Ukraine, and more recently out of Crimea, of clashes between pro-Russian militants and Ukrainians who feel closer to the European Union. The situation has deteriorated to an extent that the crisis risks developing into a civil war.

As everyone else, I have been following these developments with keen interest.  While the current unsettling political situation in Ukraine is an internal matter for the Ukrainians to resolve, such conflicts bring in their wake international instability as well as tensions between countries, not least between the United  States and Russia, which could bring about political insecurity in other parts of the world.  They also risk disrupting economic and trade relations between countries especially if economic sanctions are imposed as a form of diplomatic pressure on the warring parties.  At  the time of writing, only targeted individuals from Crimea and the Russian Federation identified as being responsible for actions which undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine, have had restrictive measures and sanctions imposed upon them.

Located in Eastern Europe, Ukraine is a country that consists of 46 million people.  It is the second largest country in Europe after Russia.  Seventeen per cent of the population are ethnic Russians.  Fifty per cent of these Russians live in Crimea where Russia has its Black Sea fleet in the port of Sevastopol.  Ukraine is one of the largest exporters of grain, steel and chemical products in the world.  The co-hosting of the European Football Championship Euro-2012 has put Ukraine prominently on the European radar screen.

Following the March 16th referendum, on the status of Crimea, the people of this peninsula decided by an overwhelming majority in favour of integration of the region into the Russian Federation. This referendum was not recognised by the European Union, the United States and Canada because it violated the Ukrainian Constitution and International Law. 

Although geographically Malta and Ukraine are thousands of kilometres apart of each other, we enjoy diplomatic relations which date back to 1992, with Malta’s Ambassador resident in Warsaw, Poland.   The milestone in bilateral cooperation was the visit to Ukraine by former President Dr. Eddie Fenech Adami in 1992 when two bilateral agreements were signed, one on cooperation in tourism and the other on combating organized crime.  More recently, and before the recent events unfolded,  Malta and Ukraine were looking forward towards cooperation in the fields of trade, investments and energy following Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s official visit to Kyiv last September where he had talks with President Victor Yanukovych.  A double taxation agreement was signed and during this visit Dr. Muscat expressed Malta’s support for the signing of an association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union.

But this was not to be.  Last November President Victor Yanukovych decided to shelve an agreement with the European Union which would have meant an economic pact and immediate assistance to Ukraine to the tune of €610 million preferring instead a $15 billion bailout from Russia.  This negative development brought matters to a head with Ukranians taking to the streets of Kyiv in mass protests against their President who has since fled the country.  Apart from the economic impact of the EU financial assistance, the Ukrainians who are pro-EU had seen such a pact as the first step towards European Union integration.

Since the Ukrainian crisis broke out, the European Union has been working in fast mode to help bring about a solution to this conflict.  Heads of Government, and even more so Foreign Ministers  of EU Member States, including our own Dr. George Vella, have been meeting on a regular basis to discuss the situation in Ukraine, at times even in urgently called meetings because events were developing at a fast pace.  Even the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly discussed several times and at length the situation in Ukraine.  

During the last EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg on April 15, Foreign Minister Dr. George Vella made Malta’s position on this crisis very clear. Apart from expressing deep concern about the ongoing events in Eastern Ukraine, he stressed that the best hope for de-escalation lies in the quadripartite talks that brought together the EU, US, Ukraine and Russia in Geneva on the 17th of April during which an agreement that sees Ukrainian militants to disarm and vacate occupied buildings, was reached. 

One hopes that this agreement is honoured by all parties involved although events over the last few days do not augur well.

Dr. Ian Borg is the Parliamentary Secretary for EU Presidency 2017 and EU Funds