Ukraine's former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and her husband in court
The daughter of Ukraine's jailed and ailing ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko
said Tuesday her mother was ending her 19-day hunger strike while still
urging EU leaders to boycott her country.
The announcement came only hours after Ukraine was forced to shelve
plans to host a regional summit after most of the participants pulled
out in protest over the treatment of the 2004 Orange Revolution leader,
reports Reuters.
The opposition leader's 32-year-old daughter Yevgenia said her mother
had agreed to be hospitalised in the eastern city of Kharkiv on
Wednesday so that German neurologist Lutz Harms can "begin bringing
(her) out of her hunger strike".
President Viktor Yanukovych's great rival was jailed for seven years in
October following an abuse of power trial that was bitterly criticised
by the United States and European Union for its political overtones.
The West's anger intensified when Tymoshenko began a fast after
claiming to have been dragged against her will to a local hospital for
treatment of a bad back that was keeping her from attending her new
trial.
That hearing -- now suspended until May 21 -- can theoretically extend
her time in prison until 2023. Tymoshenko claims fearing being poisoned
or infected by local hospital doctors.
Her daughter said the decision to end the hunger strike was taken in
consultation with the visiting German medics and that the full recovery
period from such a long stretch without food lasted "up to two weeks".
"It is impossible to start treatment immediately because of the hunger strike," Yevgenia Tymoshenko said.
The decision however is unlikely to ease Europe's anger over
Tymoshenko's treatment and comes amid the first signs of a growing EU
boycott of the country making its first tangible impact.
Ukraine had earlier in the day been forced to cancel a Central European
summit it was to begin hosting on Friday in the Crimean resort of Yalta
after most of the participants pulled out.
The event was meant to be a Ukrainian showpiece one month before Ukraine co-hosts Euro 2012 football with Poland.
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