KIEV, Nov. 24 – President Viktor Yanukovych on Thursday failed to deny a media report that he was going to join a meeting in Moscow December 19, skipping an EU-Ukraine summit in Kiev the same day.

“I did not give any information to anybody on where I will be on December 19,” Yanukovych said. “I will be where I need to be.”

The comment comes a day after Yanukovych’s top ally, Hanna Herman, said Ukraine has been holding crucial talks with both, the European Union and Russia, and it is up to the president to decide which way the country must go.

Yanukovych and his government have so far publicly spoken in favor of European integration of Ukraine, ruling out closer political integration with Russia.

But the government has recently accelerated talks with Russia, signing a free trade agreement with six other former Soviet states. Ukraine was also holding important natural gas talks with Moscow, seeking lower gas prices.

The report by Interfax on Wednesday cited an unnamed source at the secretariat of the Euro-Asian Economic Union, a Russia-led political and trade bloc, that Yanukovych, with an observer status, will be joining the meeting in Moscow on December 19.

The report sparked confusion among political figures in Ukraine and abroad because Yanukovych is supposed to host the summit with the European Union on December 19 in Kiev.

Neither the Foreign Ministry nor other government agencies have confirmed the trip by Yanukovych to Moscow.

The report came a week after a source at the Polish EU Presidency had suggested the EU may cancel the summit with Ukraine if the authorities fail to release opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko by that time.

Asked specifically to comment on the Interfax report, Yanukovych said: “You know, there is saying: Make a guess,” Yanukovych said when asked to comment on the report. “Let me tell you, we got used to intrigues by politicians, so I am not surprised.”

Meanwhile, the controversial report apparently originated at the Yanukovych administration, a source in the administration told Kommersant-Ukraine daily in a story published on Thursday.

Olekskiy Plotnikov, a lawmaker and a member of the Regions Party, said Thursday that Yanukovych will be hosting the summit with the EU in Kiev as planned.

“If the president is speaking about the membership in the EU, than obviously he will be at the Ukraine-EU summit,” Plotnikov said in an interview with Channel 5.

“It is extremely pressing matter for Ukraine to have respective relations with the EU, to sign tan agreement on political association and the free trade agreement, and a lot of other things,” Plotnikov said. (tl/ez)