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Italy’s ex-president says Ukraine crisis triggered by hastily signed EU association deal

Crimea's reunificaton with Russia is not to blame for the Ukrainian crisis, says Italy’s ex-president Giorgio Napolitano

© EPA/ANGELO CARCONI

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Italy’s South Tyrol may serve as model for Ukraine's east — Italian FM

ROME, February 13. /TASS/. Ukraine’s crisis has been rooted not in Crimea’s reunification with Russia, but in an early signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union, former Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said on Friday.

"The Ukraine crisis was not unleashed when Crimea accessed Russia but much earlier when the EU had been in negotiations with Ukraine and certain European countries were pressuring [Kiev] with many an effort to seal the agreement hastily," said Napolitano who has become a life-term senator after resignation.

Napolitano said the European attitude towards building relationship with Ukraine has been "bureaucratic" and noted that in the talks between Moscow, Kiev and Brussels "Russia’s fears connected with consequences of Ukraine’s rapprochement with the European Union" should be taken into account.

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