You're reading: Foreign Ministry ignores Europe’s officials’ request to visit Tymoshenko

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has said that the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has ignored a formal request by the OSCE representatives to visit former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in jail.

"We sent an official request for a meeting with Tymoshenko through the Swedish Embassy eight days ago. The request was addressed to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and the penal colony. In our practise the absence of the answer automatically means ‘yes’. Meanwhile, when we talked with the head of the Kachanivska penal colony, we were denied permission to meet with Tymoshenko," Vice President of the OSCE PA Walburga Habsburg Douglas said in an interview with Channel 5.

As reported, representatives of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly arrived at Kachanivska colony on March 5 to meet with Tymoshenko. The prison’s management did not allow the European politicians to meet with the ex-premier saying that they did not agree the meeting with the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine.