You're reading: Tymoshenko says she issued directives for gas talks at request of ex-Naftogaz chief Dubyna

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, in her trial at Kyiv's Pechersky District Court on Wednesday, said that that she issued the directives to hold gas talks with Russia at the request of former Naftogaz Ukrainy CEO Oleh Dubyna.

An Interfax-Ukraine reporter said that while testifying in court on Wednesday, Tymoshenko said, "the directives were approved at the request of Dubyna, and I emphasize this. I did not issue the directives for no particular reason, but I submitted the text to him for examination, whether what was written there suited him. He just had to see whether I had taken everything into account."

At the same time, when asked by the prosecution why Dubyna needed the directives, Tymoshenko said: "Every bureaucrat wants to have papers. Are the papers necessary? I drew up them in writing."

She also said that she had the right to sum up the results of talks in writing and that this was not contrary to law.

"This means to formalize [the documents]," she said.

Tymoshenko also said that Dubyna had given his testimony under pressure, because, in her opinion, he had been warned that he could be arrested.