Ukrainian medics have recommended that former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko stop her hunger strike and expressed hope that their colleagues from the German Charite Clinic will arrive soon, as Tymoshenko refuses to be treated by Ukrainian experts.
“Yulia Volodymyrivna is refusing procedures as of today. The German doctors have not informed us of the date of their arrival. The problem is that she is their patient, and we are asking the German doctors to come to Ukraine to provide the patient with aid if necessary,” First Deputy Health Minister of Ukraine Raisa Moiseyenko said at a press briefing on Thursday.
When asked about the state of health of the ex-premier, she said: “Her health state is satisfactory.”
Moiseyenko refused to make forecasts about when Tymoshenko’s condition would deteriorate if she keeps refusing food, but stressed that any person that undergoes medical treatment should not go on hunger strikes.
“She does not need a hunger strike. Medics do not recommend her to refuse food today. When a person undergoes rehabilitation he or she should not go on hunger strike,” the official said.
Moiseyenko also said that no one was using force, particularly force-feeding, against Tymoshenko.
She added that she does not know for sure whether Tymoshenko is indeed refusing food.
“Speaking about statements on the way the hunger strike is conducted, whether she eats or not, we simply don’t watch this,” she said.
She added that Tymoshenko regularly receives food.
As reported, on October 29 Tymoshenko went on hunger strike in protest against the falsification of the parliamentary elections in Ukraine.
She also announced a hunger strike in April 2012, when a scandal emerged around the alleged forced hospitalization of the ex-premier.
On October 11, 2011, Pechersky District Court in Kyiv sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in prison for overstepping her authority when signing the 2009 gas contracts with Russia. She has served her sentence in Kachanivska Penal Colony in Kharkiv since late December 2011.
She was transferred to a clinic on May 9 to undergo medical treatment and a rehabilitation course under the supervision of doctors from the German clinic, Charite.
