WARSAW, Aug 31 (Reuters) - The trial of Ukrainian opposition leader Julia Tymoshenko may slow Kiev's push for closer ties with the European Union, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski told his visiting Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovich.
WARSAW, (Reuters) – The trial of Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko may slow Kyiv’s push for closer ties with the European Union, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski told his visiting Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych.
Poland, which holds the EU’s rotating six-month presidency, has long championed Ukrainian efforts to move out of Russia’s shadow and closer to the West and strongly supports talks between Kiev and Brussels to create a free trade zone.
But many countries in the 27-strong EU say the trial of Tymoshenko, Yanukovich’s arch rival, is politically motivated.
“Obstacles have appeared (on Kiev’s path to European integration) and one of these is undoubtedly the trial of Ms Julia Tymoshenko, which in Europe, in many countries, is seen as a trial of a political, not a criminal, nature, that harms the image of Ukraine,” Komorowski said late on Tuesday.
“The Ukrainian authorities need to find a solution that removes any doubts that this trial is an act of political revenge against the opposition,” Komorowski told Yanukovich, who was on a one-day visit to Poland.
“This issue is a hurdle for Ukraine if it is a question of the speed of its move towards European integration. And that worries us as an advocate of Ukraine’s cause.”
Tymoshenko, Yanukovich’s rival for the presidency in last year’s election, is facing charges that she abused her position as prime minister in 2009 by signing a gas deal with Russia that her critics say is detrimental to Ukrainian interests.
Her trial has triggered street demonstrations by her supporters and has drawn criticism from the United States as well as the EU.
Yanukovich has taken a strongly pro-Russian line on some policy areas, such as ditching ambitions for joining NATO, but he has also made clear he sees Ukraine’s long-term future in the European mainstream.
