If Ukrainians want to join the EU, that’s their problem, but it should be their call, not Putin’s. of course, the proposed treaty is *not* for EU membership, or adoption of the euro; it’s for free trade with the largest market outside of North America.
I agree that the EU will collapse as a currency union and nascent political union (and have thought that it was a ridiculous idea since people first conceived it in the late 1980s, when I was in high school), but the old EEC was a very good idea, and whatever occurs I don’t think that they’ll get rid of free trade among current EU members. Having free trade with most European countries would be quite beneficial to the Ukraine, as it would be to just about any country.
An economic union that involves the EU demanding Ukraine release people in prison? Are those not internal affairs for Ukraine? What business does Brussels have with the Ukrainian legal system?