Europe offered a closer bond to Ukraine and warned Russia to keep its hands off its southwestern neighbour yesterday. The EU stopped short, however, of promising Kiev the membership for which it yearns.

The spectre of new Russian pressure on Ukraine loomed over an EU summit with its President, Viktor Yushchenko, chaired by President Sarkozy of France a day after he extracted a Russian promise to pull back troops in Georgia.

“In the eyes of Europe, the territorial integrity of Ukraine is absolutely non-negotiable,” Mr Sarkozy said. He added that President Medvedev had given him no indication of malicious intent towards Ukraine when they met in Moscow on Monday.

Mr Sarkozy, whose country holds the EU rotating presidency, presented Ukraine with a compromise from EU states, which cannot agree on whether to offer eventual membership. Kiev is to have an association agreement next year and the EU acknowledged “the European aspirations of Ukraine and welcomes its European choice”. “This accord does not close any avenues,” Mr Sarkozy said. “It is the maximum that we could do and I believe that it is already an essential step.”

Germany, the Benelux countries and Italy had resisted a firm commitment, worrying about the instability of Ukraine and damaging relations with Moscow. The former Soviet Republic, which has a population of 46 million, is in the midst of political upheaval after the collapse of a shaky coalition between President Yushchenko and Yuliya Tymoshenko, the Prime Minister, last week.

Britain is among those backing eventual Ukrainian membership. “It is important that Europe’s leaders make clear that we are determined on a long-term relationship with Ukraine with membership as a long-term goal,” David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said at the weekend. The pro-Western Government of Kiev is counting on an anchor with the EU as it comes under pressure from a resurgent Kremlin over its eight million ethnic Russian citizens, notably those in the strategic, Russian-populated Crimean region.

President Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, his mentor and Prime Minister, have said repeatedly that Russia is ready to intervene to protect its compatriots everywhere, as it did last month in the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Olli Rehn, the EU Enlargement Commissioner, said Ukraine could become Russia’s next target if it was not offered membership. A conflict over Ukraine, a country nearly the size of France, would be more dangerous than the brief war in the tiny nation of Georgia, EU officials said.

Mr Yushchenko invoked fears about Sevastopol, the Crimean port that is leased by Russia as a base for its Black Sea Fleet. “There is no real counterbalance to the prevailing power in the region, so it is important that the EU design an effective mechanism so that it does not become a threat to security,” he said.

Kiev has been planning for full EU membership by 2020. Even the pro-Russian population of its east is not opposed to joining, but is not keen on the Nato alliance, which President Yushchenko also wants to enter. Nato has delayed a decision on Ukrainian and Georgian membership, a step seen in Moscow as the ultimate US-led provocation in its “near abroad”.

President Yushchenko called the agreement an historic step by the EU, which would likely end in membership. “It is the first step in a long road that was taken in the 1990s by all the [Eastern] states which have since become members,” he said.

Other Ukrainian officials voiced disappointment. Andriy Veselovsky, the Kiev Ambassador to the EU, said: “At this point the European Union is not ready to give what we want, because the European Union did not acquire a concerted position.”

Mr Sarkozy insisted that Europe had taken an historic step by recognising the European destiny of Ukraine. “I have always considered it part of Europe,” he said.

The French President nevertheless irritated the Ukrainians by switching the venue of the long-scheduled summit at the last minute to Paris from Évian on Lake Geneva. His 5am return to Paris from Tbilisi had made it “a bit complicated” to leave again immediately for the lakeside resort, he said.

Mr Sarkozy acknowledged that his talks in the Kremlin had been tough. It took four hours to extract a Russian commitment to observe the terms of the Georgian ceasefire, which he negotiated on August 12. Russia has now agreed to pull its forces out of the Georgian heartland within a month. At one stage Mr Sarkozy reached for his jacket and started to leave, telling the Russians he had “no plan B”, the President told reporters.

Mr Sarkozy, whose approval ratings have leapt since he threw himself into diplomacy in the summer, said that partnership talks between the EU and Russia could resume next month if the pullback was implemented. Brussels suspended the talks in response to Moscow invading Georgian territory.

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