KIEV: Ukrainian Presi­dent Petro Poroshenko faces a strong backlash from some of his staunchest supporters for bowing to Russian pressure and postponing the implementation of an EU trade pact which is due to be ratified on Tuesday.

Several of them have warned the decision to delay the ex-Soviet state’s econo­mic tilt westward could spark a repeat of the EuroMaidan protests that toppled Kremlin-backed Viktor Yanukovych earlier this year, after he rejected the same deal.

“I am speechless,” central Dnipropetrovsk region deputy governor Svyatoslav Oliy­nik wrote in a Facebook post.

“The last time this happened, we had EuroMaidan.”

And Deputy Foreign Min­ister Danylo Lubkivsky, submitting his resignation in protest, said Poroshenko was sending “the wrong signal to everyone: the aggressor (Russia), our allies and, most importantly, the citizens of Ukraine.”

But most analysts agree the threat of a furious Russia unleashing crippling trade restrictions on Ukraine that would sink its economy even further had left the staunchly pro-Western leader with little choice.

The free trade deal — now not set to come into effect until 2016 — is part of a broader Association Agreement the EU and Ukrainian parliaments are expected to ratify Tuesday, after years of negotiations that often verged on collapse.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had repeatedly tried to torpedo the talks, apparently out of concern Ukraine would slip out of Moscow’s orbit and ruin his dream of a post-Soviet bloc rivalling the European Union and NATO.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2014