KIEV: In a decision laden with symbolic value, Dutch lawmakers agreed on Tuesday to closer ties and the creation of a free-trade area with Ukraine, completing a long and contentious negotiation that pushed Russia and the European Union to the edge of confrontation.
The agreement became a focal point of the geopolitical battle between Moscow and Brussels over the future of Ukraine, which President Vladimir V. Putin considers an integral part of historical Russia and a vital buffer against an encroaching NATO.
With Tuesday’s vote, Europe declared victory. “Ukraine’s place is in Europe,” Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, said after the vote in the Dutch Senate. “Ukraine’s future lies with Europe.”
Signed in 2014, the pact required the assent of all 28 members of the European Union before it could take effect. The Netherlands was the last holdout, after voters in a national referendum rejected the deal last year in what seemed to be an astonishing victory for Mr. Putin.
The agreement must still receive unanimous support at one of the regular meetings of European Union ministers in the coming weeks. But officials said they were confident the pact would easily pass that hurdle.
The split between Europe and Russia dates to the fall of Viktor F. Yanukovych, the kleptocratic Ukrainian dictator who was forced into exile in Russia in February 2014.
For many of Ukraine’s citizens — particularly those who waved European Union flags during bloody protests in Kiev, where more than 100 were killed — establishing closer ties with Europe became the main way they wanted to transform their country into a democratic state beyond Moscow’s sphere of influence.
Moscow contended that Yanukovych’s downfall was the result of a Western-inspired coup, and to prevent Ukraine from migrating entirely into the Western camp, it seized Crimea and threw its support to a revolt then taking shape in Ukraine’s east. Europe responded by slapping Russia with strong economic sanctions.
