In a letter posted on her Fatherland political party’s website, Tymoshenko said she “simply wanted to kill” President Viktor Yanukovych when she learned about the Cabinet’s decision on Thursday to halt plans to sign an association agreement and a free trade deal at an EU summit in Vilnius next week.
In an announcement that stunned Europe, the Ukrainian government announced it would seek closer cooperation with Russia and the Moscow-led Customs Union trade bloc that also comprises Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in downtown Kiev hours after the announcement.
A top aide to Lithuania’s president said Friday Yanukovych admitted Kiev backed off from signing the deals with the EU under pressure from Russia. Russia has denied that it threatened Ukraine, and instead leveled similar charges at the EU.
“Frankly speaking, yesterday, after the government’s decision to reject an agreement with the EU, I simply wanted to kill you,” Tymoshenko wrote in her letter to Yanukovych. “I think some 70 percent of the people overseen by you felt the same. Forgive us all these spontaneous emotions … but now we need not to run into aggression but save the situation by all means. You are the only person who can do it.”
Ukraine’s parliament had earlier Thursday rejected draft laws aimed at allowing Tymoshenko to seek medical treatment abroad, which EU officials had stipulated as a condition for the agreements with Kiev to go ahead.
Tymoshenko was in 2011 sentenced to seven years in jail for abusing of her power while serving as prime minister by overseeing a gas contract with Russia determined to be financially unfavorable for Ukraine.
She insists the charges were politically motivated.
- A new case against Tymoshenko on charges of abuse of office at the Ukrainian Unified Energy Systems Corporation, which she headed in the 1990s, has been pending in a Kiev court since April 2012. Hearings have been continuously postponed due to Tymoshenko’s chronic back problems.
- She has also been accused of organizing the murder of a local politician in 1996.
23/11/13
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Related:
US ‘Disappointed’ in Ukraine’s Stalled EU Deal
European Commission to issue statement on Ukraine Friday morning.
Η Ουκρανία παγώνει τη Συμφωνία Σύνδεσης με την ΕΕ. - Ψυχρολουσία στις Βρυξέλλες.
Kiew rückt von Europa ab – Putin triumphiert....
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Kiev Police Use Tear Gas Against Pro-EU Integration Protesters – Report...
ReplyDeleteKIEV, November 24 (RIA Novosti) – Ukraine’s riot police used tear gas and batons against pro-European integration protesters when some of them tried to break through a police cordon to the central entrance of the Cabinet’s building in downtown Kiev, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported from the site Sunday.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators backing EU integration and a separate group of protesters against it assembled in the Ukrainian capital on Sunday in reaction to the government’s decision earlier this week to suspend landmark agreements with Brussels and turn to Russia instead.
Someone threw two smoke bombs toward the Cabinet’s building. Police put the number of pro-EU protesters at about 22,000, the Unian news agency reported citing Kiev police. An opposition MP from the Fatherland parliamentary faction, Oleksandr Turchynov, said some 100,000 gathered on European Square.
Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said a riot policeman was injured when unknown assailants threw two stones from the crowd..............http://en.ria.ru/world/20131124/184938426/Kiev-Police-Use-Tear-Gas-Against-Pro-EU-Integration-Protesters--Report.html
24/11/13
Η Γιούλια Τιμοσένκο κήρυξε απεργία πείνας...
ReplyDeleteΗ κρατούμενη πρώην πρωθυπουργός Γιούλια Τιμοσένκο σήμερα Δευτέρα κήρυξε επαόριστον απεργία πείνας, απαιτώντας από τις ουκρανικές Αρχές να υπογράψουν τη Συμφωνία Σύνδεσης με την ΕΕ στη Σύνοδο κορυφής για την «Ανατολική εταιρική σχέση» στη Βίλνα στα τέλη Νοεμβρίου.
«Κηρύσσω επαόριστον απεργία πείνας με την απαίτηση προς τον Πρόεδρο Γιανουκόβιτς να υπογράψει τη Συμφωνία Σύνδεσης και τη συμφωνία για τη ζώνη ελεύθερου εμπορίου με την Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση», - ανέφερε ο υπερασπιστής της πρώην πρωθυπουργού Σεργκέι Βλάσενκο, αναγνώσκοντας την επιστολή της Τιμοσένκο, σε ομιλία του σε συλλαλητήριο προς τους υποστηριχτές της ευρωπαϊκής ολοκλήρωσης της Ουκρανίας στο Κίεβο.
Διαβάστε ολόκληρο το κείμενο: http://greek.ruvr.ru/2013_11_25/252914808/
25/11/13
Ukraine-EU Association Deal Still In View – Foreign Minister...
ReplyDeleteKIEV, November 26 (RIA Novosti) – Ukraine has not abandoned plans to sign a landmark trade deal with the European Union, the country’s top diplomat said Monday.
“Ukraine is not rejecting the agreement on association [with the EU], we are simply talking about suspension of its signing,” Foreign Minister Leonid Kozhara told reporters in the capital, Kiev. “Neither Ukraine nor the EU are ready for this deal.”
Kozhara’s remarks came after days of protests in Kiev and number of towns and cities across Ukraine.
In a move that stunned Europe, the Ukrainian government last week announced it would seek closer cooperation with Russia and the Moscow-led Customs Union trade bloc, which also comprises Belarus and Kazakhstan.
Kozhara said the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has backed the Cabinet’s decision to suspend the planned signing of the association agreement and free trade deals with the EU at the two-day summit in Vilnius starting November 28.
Ukraine has instead proposed the creation of a trilateral commission between itself, Russia and the European Union to explore ways to deepen mutual ties.
Ukraine has come under sustained pressure from the Kremlin in recent months as diplomatic negotiations over its alignment with the EU intensified.
As well as the threatening the imposition of a strict new customs regime, Russia also ratcheted up pressure on Kiev, which depends on Russia for its energy supplies, over payments for gas imports.
The Ukrainian government acknowledged last week that the country had already registered significant losses because of shrinking trade volumes with Russia and other members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, an alliance of former Soviet countries.
http://en.ria.ru/world/20131126/184980794/Ukraine-EU-Association-Deal-Still-In-View--Foreign-Minister.html
26/11/13
Ukraine Could Free Tymoshenko for $20Bln Payment – President...
ReplyDeleteKIEV, November 27 (RIA Novosti) – Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said Wednesday that his main political adversary could be released from prison if she pays billions of dollars in compensation for financial damage he claims she inflicted on the country.
Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko caused losses of about $20 billion by approving 2009 gas contracts with Russia, Yanukovych claimed in an interview with several Ukrainian television channels.
Ukraine has been convulsed by mass street protests in recent days after a dramatic decision last week to back out of signing long-planned association agreements with the European Union.
The freeing of Tymoshenko, convicted for exceeding her authority by signing the 2009 gas deal, was an EU precondition for Kiev to be able to sign the agreements. But laws to enable Tymoshenko to leave for medical treatment in Germany were thrown out last week by Ukraine’s parliament.
“If she has committed [a crime] – then pay the money, and request or demand release,” Yanukovych said.
Tymoshenko announced a hunger strike on Monday in protest at Yanukovych's failure to sign the EU deal.
Ukrainian officials have said that Ukraine could not sign the agreements with the EU because the country’s economy had been so badly damaged by shrinking trade with Russia.
“Today we are weak, today, tentatively speaking, we are not completely healthy. Today our economy is sick,” Yanukovych said Wednesday.
Russia has been accused by the EU of exerting economic pressure on Kiev, including demanding payments for natural gas deliveries and threatening to tighten the customs regime at the shared border, in an effort to derail deeper European integration.
Russia, in turn, has accused the EU of blackmailing Ukraine to sign the deal.
http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131127/185070622/Ukraine-Could-Free-Tymoshenko-for-20Bln-Payment--President-.html
27/11/13