Vlasenko: US Senate passes resolution urging Ukraine's authorities to release Tymoshenko

The United States Senate has unanimously passed a resolution on Ukraine with a call for the immediate release of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and other political prisoners, the ex-premier's defense lawyer, Serhiy Vlasenko, said on September 22.

"I've just received a message saying that the [U.S.] Senate unanimously voted on the resolution on the Tymoshenko case!" Vlasenko wrote on his page in Facebook.

Earlier, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee unanimously passed the draft resolution by Senator James M. Inhofe, which was co-authored by U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin.

"The U.S. Senate condemns the administration of President Viktor Yanukovych for the politically motivated imprisonment of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko," reads the text of the resolution.

In the document, the U.S. Senate also called on the Yanukovych administration to release Tymoshenko immediately for medical reasons, and urged the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the U.S. Department of State to apply unified multilateral diplomatic pressure on President Yanukovych to release Tymoshenko.

The resolution also urges the U.S. Department of State "to institute a visa ban against President Yanukovych, Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka, and other officials responsible for Tymoshenko's imprisonment."