About: Yulia Tymoshenko Archives

All the major political parties in the European Parliament united yesterday (24 May) to back a resolution putting pressure on Ukraine to free the jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

The EU's new ambassador to Kyiv will be veteran diplomat Jan Tombi?ski from Poland, the country most supportive of bringing forward Ukraine's integration process with the Union, EURACTIV has learned.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said his country was “taken hostage” over the case of his imprisoned predecessor, Yulia Tymoshenko, which he said was overblown because of a “foreign plot” to prevent the country from getting closer to the EU.

EU ministers held an animated discussion in Brussels yesterday (14 May), evaluating the risks of “losing Ukraine to Russia” if too much pressure is put on the country over the treatment of imprisoned former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

The Ukrainian prosecution will press murder charges against the country’s former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in two weeks time, Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin, who is responsible for her case, announced yesterday (9 May). 

Poland and Ukraine, which are co-hosting the Euro 2012 football championship in June, strongly criticised European politicians who said they would not attend matches played in Ukraine in sign of protest against the imprisonment of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

A summit of the presidents of Central European countries due in Yalta, Ukraine, on 11-12 May, will be attended by some EU leaders and boycotted by others, EURACTIV has learned. Ironically, Yalta is a symbol of the division of Europe during the Cold War, following the February 1945 meeting there between Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel could cancel her visit to Ukraine during the Euro 2012 football tournament in June if jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is not released by then, Germany's Der Spiegel magazine reported yesterday (29 April). 

Meeting with journalists in Brussels yesterday (25 April), Ukrainian First Deputy Prime Minister Valeriy Khoroshkovskiy said that if "all problems" between Ukraine and the EU were solved, the Parliament in Kyiv could pass extraordinary legislation to set former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko free from jail. 

A new trial of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko - already serving a seven-year prison term on abuse-of-office charges - opened today (19 April) with the defendant refusing to attend on grounds of poor health.

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, serving a seven-year prison sentence on abuse-of-office charges, has dismissed new allegations of her involvement in the murder of a parliamentary deputy nearly 16 years ago. 

Former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko will receive treatment for her back problems in a hospital outside the Kharkiv prison where she is presently detained, the country's authorities announced yesterday (2 April).

Ukrainian opposition politician Arsenyi Yatseniuk criticised the country's President Viktor Yanukovych for having fallen in several traps, some of them "self-created". Yatseniuk, who was himself candidate for president in 2010, has created a party, which is in alliance with the political force of jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. 

 
Ukraine initialled today (30 March) a landmark Association Agreement with the EU and a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement. Although this is only a technical step before the official signature, the Commission said the move was important for "keeping the momentum" in relations with Kyiv.
 

Three prominent Ukraine opposition leaders made separate appearances in Brussels in recent days, providing a rare insight into the country's political life ahead of crucial parliamentary elections due in October. 

Poland and Ukraine have completed preparations to co-host the Euro 2012 European Football Championship, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at a joint press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart, Mykola Azarov.
 

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko may have been maltreated in prison, MEP Zuzana Roithová, a physician and former hospital director, said yesterday (22 February) after visiting the imprisoned opposition figure.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian counterpart Mykola Azarov failed to achieve a breakthrough in talks yesterday (20 December) over Kiev's push for a gas price cut to help its struggling economy and soothe European supply concerns. 

EU and Ukrainian leaders meeting in Kyiv yesterday (19 December) failed to initial the country's Association Agreement with the Union, largely due to the imprisonment of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko that Brussels sees as "politically motivated".

Days before a crunch EU-Ukraine summit on 19 December, Kyiv is under increased pressure as Brussels urges its leaders to release political prisoners and Russia moves to take control of its gas pipeline network, diplomats told EURACTIV.

An EU-Ukraine "association agreement" should be initiated without delay, and preferably before the end of this year, the European Parliament said in a surprisingly gentle resolution voted yesterday (1 December). EU governments should give the agreement a green light at the next EU summit of 8-9 December, it adds. 

A key EU-Ukraine summit planned for 19 December may have to be cancelled, diplomats told EURACTIV yesterday (30 November), signalling widening divisions between Kyiv and the European Union over the imprisoning of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

A senior Ukrainian prosecutor in charge of the trial of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko left little doubt that an appeal will uphold her prison sentence for abuse of office and said further charges, including that of commissioning a murder, would be pressed against her.

In a rare show of unity in the European Parliament, political groups across party lines deplored the conviction of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko as a violation of human rights and an abuse of the judiciary designed to silence Ukraine's leading opposition figure.