Interfax: Economic problems worst issue in Ukraine’s EU drive – Yanukovych

KYIV. Nov 25 (Interfax) – Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said economic problems are the most difficult issues in Ukraine’s European integration.

“We have passed a long way and we have yet to go a long distance. Economic problems have been the most difficult issues on this road,” he said in an appeal to the nation, posted on his website.

“But I would have been dishonest and unfair, if I had not thought about the most vulnerable people who could have carried the heaviest burden of the transitional period. I would have been wrong, to put it mildly, if I had don’t done what I ought to have done to ensure that people do not lose their jobs, and get their salaries, pensions and grants,” Yanukovych said.

He said he wishes peace and tranquility to reign in Ukraine.

Prime Minister Mykola Azarov later said that the government had asked the European Union for aid on many occasions in conditions of a crisis, worsened by pressure coming from Russia and the Customs Union, and hoping that the EU will influence the International Monetary Fund’s position. But the EU made the only pledge to provide about 1 billion euros in the coming seven years, while the IMF said it could extend a loan amounting to Ukraine’s debt to it – about $4 billion.

“We don’t need such sops in exchange for actually ruining our economy,” he said adding the terms proposed by the IMF were overly severe.