European Union mediators returned to Ukraine Tuesday to negotiate the release of imprisoned former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in a last-ditch effort to salvage a pending EU-Ukraine association agreement.
The treaty, set to be signed at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius on Nov. 28, includes a sweeping free trade deal between the EU and Ukraine. The pact is expected to deepen Ukrainian engagement with the country's western neighbors, while exacerbating tensions withRussia. Moscow has vehemently opposed Ukraine's economic integration with the EU, and has pressured it to join a trade bloc known as the Customs Union with other former Soviet countries.
