Ukrainian opposition activists bring 365 roses to Tymoshenko

KHARKIV - Leaders of the United Opposition have brought 365 white roses for Ukraine's ex-prime Yulia Tymoshenko to mark the number of days she has spent in jail and at Kharkiv hospital.

"Today we came to support Yulia, to say that she is not just a strong personality, not just a beautiful woman, but a real Ukrainian woman, not broken, and we are together with her today. We have 365 white roses here. She has been in prison for 365 days, and I sincerely believe that we will be giving roses to one another and to Yulia Volodymyrivna only on big holiday occasions, and that these are the last roses in relation to her imprisonment," the Front for Change leader Arseniy Yatseniuk told reporters in Kharkiv.

Although the opposition leaders who have arrived in Kharkiv have no permission for a personal meeting with Tymoshenko, as parliamentarians they are entitled to unhindered access to prison grounds and people held in custody, he said.

"We will carry these roses as far as the last police checkpoint," the politician said.

An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent said that the flowers for Tymoshenko were handed to the security guard. Tymoshenko's supporters, who gathered outside the hospital, launched red and white balloons into the sky in front of the window of Tymoshenko's ward.

Other opposition leaders who came to Kharkiv were Civil Position leader Anatoliy Hrytsenko, Popular Rukh of Ukraine leader Borys Tarasiuk, Reform and Order leader Serhiy Sobolev, former interior minister Yuriy Lutsenko's wife Iryna, Tymoshenko's defense attorney Serhiy Vlasenko and MP Serhiy Pashynsky.

Tymoshenko is undergoing a course of treatment at a hospital in Kharkiv.