Ukraine's prime minister has pulled his nation closer into Europe's orbit by signing a political association agreement with the EU at a summit of the bloc's leaders.

Today's agreement between Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and EU leaders was part of the pact that former president Viktor Yanukovych backed out of last November in favour of a 15 billion US dollar bailout from Russia.

That decision sparked the protests which ultimately led to his downfall and flight last month, setting off one of Europe's worst political crises since the Cold War.

Russian forces took control of Crimea two weeks ago in the wake of Mr Yanukovych's ousting and President Vladimir Putin this week annexed the strategically important Black Sea peninsula.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.