You're reading: Vlasenko: US Senate passes resolution urging Ukraine’s authorities to release Tymoshenko

The United States Senate has unanimously passed a resolution on Ukraine with a call for the immediate release of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and other political prisoners, the ex-premier's defense lawyer, Serhiy Vlasenko, said on September 22.

“I’ve just received a message saying that the [U.S.] Senate
unanimously voted on the resolution on the Tymoshenko case!” Vlasenko
wrote on his page in Facebook.

Earlier, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously
passed the draft resolution by Senator James M. Inhofe, which was
co-authored by U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin.

“The U.S. Senate condemns the administration of President Viktor
Yanukovych for the politically motivated imprisonment of former Prime
Minister Yulia Tymoshenko,” reads the text of the resolution.

In the document, the U.S. Senate also called on the Yanukovych
administration to release Tymoshenko immediately for medical reasons,
and urged the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
and the U.S. Department of State to apply unified multilateral
diplomatic pressure on President Yanukovych to release Tymoshenko.

The resolution also urges the U.S. Department of State “to institute a
visa ban against President Yanukovych, Prosecutor General Viktor
Pshonka, and other officials responsible for Tymoshenko’s imprisonment.”