KIEV, Aug. 27 - Ukraine stays true to its European choice, but integration into the European space should not take place through interference in the country's internal affairs, President Viktor Yanukovych said.

"We are confidently moving toward our goal of building a modern European state. But it is an extremely difficult process. We are looking for our road into the community of developed states, but integration achieved at any cost, at the expense of losing independence, having to make economic or territorial concessions and allowing someone else to interfere in our internal affairs is not the path we will ever agree to follow," he said.

Freedom and independence are the main components of Ukraine's prosperity, Yanukovych said.