UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT Viktor Yanukovich has warned the West that he will not allow his country to be humiliated, as European Union leaders consider boycotting next month’s Euro 2012 football matches in Ukraine.
European Union commissioners have said they will not attend games in Ukraine, and several EU leaders are considering similar action in protest at Kiev’s treatment of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, who has been sentenced to jail for seven years and says she is in poor health.
The former prime minister was convicted last October of abuse of office, in a case that the EU and United States describe as politically motivated. Several of Ms Tymoshenko’s allies have also been prosecuted since her long-time foe Mr Yanukovich came to power in early 2010.
Ms Tymoshenko (51) is now being treated in a Ukrainian hospital by a German doctor for a back problem and the effects of a 19-day hunger strike, which she started in response to alleged mistreatment by prison guards. Ukraine denies that she has been in any way abused.
“Whoever wants to come to Ukraine, we would like to see you. Whoever has a reason not to come to Ukraine, that’s their personal business. Although this is undoubtedly not very pleasant for us, to put it mildly,” Mr Yanukovich said yesterday.
“Ukraine is a young country; it is developing,” he added. “When people make suggestions to us, we are grateful. But it is very important that they do not humiliate us. We don’t like that and we will not allow it.” Mr Yanukovich said “the problem with Tymoshenko . . . has not appeared today, or yesterday, but at the start of the 1990s, when the country was being robbed.”
Ms Tymoshenko ran a major energy company in the 1990s, when she was dubbed the “Gas Princess”. She is being investigated for several alleged crimes from those days, including involvement in the contract killing of a business rival.
She rejects the accusations as part of a campaign by Mr Yanukovich to sideline his most popular rival and undermine her party ahead of this autumn’s parliamentary elections.
In Brussels yesterday, some EU foreign ministers played down threats to boycott Euro 2012 games in Ukraine.
Matches will also be played in neighbouring Poland.
“I fail to see that attendance or non-attendance at football games is the main instrument of EU foreign policy,” said Carl Bildt, foreign minister of Sweden, which will play in Ukraine.
The Netherlands will also play in Ukraine, and Dutch foreign minister Uri Rosenthal said he was “not talking about a boycott”, while his Luxembourg counterpart, Jean Asselborn, quipped that “it is possible to play good football without too many ministers in attendance.” – (Reuters)
