BRUSSELS: EU chair Lithuania hit out Friday at Kiev, saying the European Union remained open to signing a partnership accord with Ukraine but “not necessarily” with Viktor Yanukovych’s government.

“Europe is open for Ukrainian people but not necessarily to this government,” said Lithuanian leader Dalia Grybauskaite, who holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.

Grybauskaite has been fuming since Yanukovych, under pressure from Russia, refused to sign an association agreement that would have brought Ukraine closer to the bloc.

The planned signing of the pact at the end of November would have capped off Lithuania’s six month EU presidency and helped draw another ex-Soviet state into the Western fold.

Instead, the Ukrainian government turned to Russia for a multi-billion dollar bailout package as Yanukovych told the West to stay out of his country’s affairs, with tens of thousands of pro-EU protesters on the streets for the past month.

“This government is not signing because it doesn’t want to sign,” said Grybauskaite at a summit of EU leaders, adding that the Ukrainian government’s “credibility is already lost.”

EU leaders are expected to issue a statement of solidarity with the Ukrainian people while keeping the door open for Kiev to sign the pact.

Referring to Moscow’s massive bailout offer which won over Kiev, Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel weighed in, saying: “We are not carpet traders. It’s not a question of offering more.”

Yanukovych has staunchly defended the deal he reached with Russian President Vladimir Putin and lambasted top European and US diplomats who turned up at the protests in Kiev.

“I am categorically against others coming to our country and teaching us how to live,” Yanukovych said.

“What is very important is that this is our internal matter, and that other countries do not intervene in our internal affairs.”

Putin has denied the assistance package had anything to do with the protests or Kiev’s decision to turn its back on the EU pact.

Rather, he said Moscow had offered the aid with the sole aim of steering a neighboring “brotherly country” out of economic trouble.