About 100 persons from the Ukrainian diaspora in Lithuania and representatives of civil society protested in support of the European integration idea in front of the Palace of the Grand Dukes in Vilnius in the evening of November 28. At that time, the Presidents and Prime Ministers of the states taking part in the third Eastern Partnership Summit were coming together for an informal dinner. The Ukrainians mounted a ‘Euromaidan’ similar to that held in Ukraine over the last few days. They pleaded against the decision of the Ukrainian administration to suspend the process of preparing for the signature of the Association Agreement with the EU, IPN’s correspondent in Vilnius reports.
The protesters chanted that Ukraine’s place is in Europe and called upon the Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovich to sign the Association Agreement.
On November 21, one week before the summit, the government of Ukraine decided to suspend the procedures for the association with the EU. The Prime Minister of Ukraine Nicolai Azarov invoked economic problems. Protests in support of the European integration process have been staged in Ukraine since then, while former Ukrainian Premier Iulia Timoshenko went on hunger strike.
