Gryshchenko: Ukraine not to release Tymoshenko, Lutsenko in order to sign Association Agreement with EU

The Ukrainian authorities will not release former Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko for the sake of the signing of the Association Agreement with the EU, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko has said in an interview with an Austrian newspaper, Die Presse.

"We are not going to do anything. Our judicial system has to work and rely on the facts. One should not even talk about a situation when our friends advise us on our further actions only because they sympathize for someone and don't even know what actually happened. We obeyed Russia for too long, and no one should tell us what to do," Gryshchenko said.

The Ukrainian minister said European politicians should consider in details the criminal case against Tymoshenko.

"Unfortunately, our partners [in the EU] need some time to understand all of the aspects of the [Tymoshenko] case. We're speaking about the way in which irresponsibility should be treated. The public demands officials take responsibility for the current situation," he said.

Hryschenko also said that the proceedings against former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko have not finished yet, and the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights on his case is not final, as there are still a number of unsettled problems.

"We're speaking about the fact that the situation in the police at the time when it was managed by Lutsenko caused the opening of many criminal cases. The courts were not independent then and the system was in a terrible state. The situation is much better today," the minister said.