In a spectacular case of bad timing, Ukraine’s government all but collapsed last week. President Viktor Yushchenko withdrew most of his deputies from the ruling coalition with Yulia Tymoshenko, the prime minister. Unless the two reconcile or the prime minister finds new coalition partners soon, Ukraine may have to hold new elections – the third in two years.

This would be destabilising under normal circumstances but times are anything but normal. The war in Georgia has led to fears that Ukraine may be next on Russia’s hit list. Like Georgia, Ukraine wants to join the European Union and Nato, and it has Russian troops as well as a sizeable Russian minority on its territory. To face the risks, the Ukrainians need reassurance that Europe will not consign them to a Russian sphere of influence. The EU seemed ready to give just such signal at tomorrow’s Ukraine-EU summit, by giving Ukraine a membership “perspective”. But after the government crisis broke out in Kiev, the opposition in the EU to Ukraine’s case hardened.