KYIV. Nov 28 (Interfax) - Former Polish President and member of the European Parliament monitoring mission for Ukraine Aleksander Kwasniewski has admitted that the EU did not fully take into consideration the Russian factor in its negotiations with Ukraine on an association agreement.
Speaking on the Polish TV channel TVN24, Kwasniewski noted that the European Union "ignored what was obvious for many years."
"The issue of Ukraine is absolutely a matter of principle for Putin and for Russia so as to use any methods to retain Kyiv, because Ukraine is needed as a component of the Customs Union and Eurasian Union, which is Putin's goal," he said.
The Europeans "have lived too long with the conviction that the Ukrainians' aspirations are so strong that they didn't expect a different scenario," he said.
The EU possibly made a mistake by concentrating solely on former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's release, Kwasniewski said. "On the other hand, the European Union is an organization of values. People who want to see justice could not put up with politically motivated trials," he said.
At the same time, "the European Union has not given up in the case of Ukraine and is looking for Plan B," Kwasniewski said. "I warn against the slashing of all this matter. The European Union should be wise enough to analyze the situation and find instruments that would persuade the Ukrainians," he said.
"Our proposal should be a coherent proposal of short-term aid for Ukraine," Kwasniewski said, stressing the importance of resuming the negotiations. He said it is important to decide "what we can offer to Ukraine."
Money for Ukraine, which would be "more than ten or perhaps twenty billion euros, is a sum acceptable to the EU, which issued much more - hundreds of billions of euros - to aid Greece," he said.