You're reading: Penitentiary service does not know for certain whether Tymoshenko’s hunger strike is real

KHARKIV - Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has been allowed to meet with the Batkivschyna United Opposition leaders, Oleksandr Turchynov, Arseniy Yatseniuk, and Hryhoriy Nemyria, as well as Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Jan Tombinski as an exception, Deputy Head of the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine Andriy Lapinsky said.

“As an exception, Yulia Volodymyrivna has been allowed to meet with
all of these people today. We hope that Yulia Volodymyrivna will start
eating again. We hope that she is sensible enough to stop this so-called
hunger strike,” he told journalists outside Central Clinical Hospital
No. 5 in Kharkiv.

Asked why he said the “so-called hunger strike”, Lapinsky said that
“Yulia Volodymyrivna is drinking lots of water and has a fridge full of
food.”

Lapinsky, however, said he did not know whether Tymoshenko was eating anything.

The former prime minister is currently meeting with Turchynov,
Yatseniuk, and Nemyria, he said. Tombinski and his interpreter will be
able to enter Tymoshenko’s ward as soon as they arrive at the clinic.