© AFP Photo / Janek SkarzynskiUkrainian President Viktor Yanukovich sits next to European Parliament President Martin Schulz (R) during the European Union's Eastern Partnership summit on November 29, 2013 in Vilnius, Lithuania.
On the last day of a Vilnius summit, Ukraine has confirmed it will delay signing its landmark trade agreement with the EU, saying the West failed to offer enough immediate economic benefits.
After years of planning the Eastern Partnership Summit and long hours of trade talks in the Lithuanian capital, the results at the summit were split: Ukraine and Armenia did not join, while Moldova, and Georgia have signed a trade Association Agreement with the EU on Friday, November 29.
Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovich said he will reconsider negotiations only after Europe offers more attractive
"economic aid to Ukraine."Ukraine faces debt repayments of more than $60 billion, or a third of the country's GDP, by July 2015, according to July Central Bank Data.
Meanwhile, the EU offered to compensate Ukraine to the tune of 1 billion euros for various losses that would result from a stricter trade regime by Russia that would follow the signing.
Ukraine needs more time to get prepared "to minimalize any negative effects in the initial period, which will definitely be felt by vulnerable parts of Ukrainian society," Yanukovych said, Interfax reported.
Dalia Grybauskaite, President of Lithuania, insisted the trade agreement terms won't be changed.
"The EU isn't going to bargain further. All the key terms are known. There will be no new ones," Grybauskaite, who presided over Friday's conference, said.
"I think that today's [Friday] Ukrainian leadership is choosing the way which is going nowhere," Grybauskaite added.
Both Moscow and Brussels have said they respect Ukraine's sovereign decision, but that doesn't mean the battle is over for Europe's second-largest country by landmass, with a $176-billion economy and a population of 45 million.
The following presents both roads that Ukraine faces, in facts and numbers.
Comment: Terrorist attacks on Moscow. Perhaps Prince Bandar isn't happy:
Saudi snake, Prince Bandar, tried first to bribe Russia to drop its support of Syria, then threatened to unleash Chechen terrorists at 2014 Winter Olympics