Kiev postpones Friday's meeting as EU leaders pull out in protest at treatment of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko
Ukraine has postponed a summit of regional leaders due to take place on Friday following European protests against the treatment of the jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.
Ukraine's foreign ministry said on Tuesday it was postponing the meeting at Yalta after Germany, the Czech Republic, Italy and 10 other EU countries pulled out. Officials in Kiev said it was sensible to delay it because EU state leaders could not attend.
The postponement comes after leaders of several EU countries, led by Germany also said they would stay away from next month's Euro 2012 football championship, which Ukraine is co-hosting with Poland.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said neither she nor her cabinet would attend Germany's matches in Ukraine in protest over Tymoshenko's treatment.
Tymoshenko, a former prime minister, was jailed for seven years in October in a trial seen by EU diplomats as politically motivated. She has been on hunger strike since 20 April, after prison guards apparently assaulted her, while forcibly taking her to hospital. She was left with bruises on her arms and stomach.
Photographs of her injuries have triggered international condemnation, as well as focusing attention on Ukraine's president, Viktor Yanukovych. His critics accuse him of presiding over a rapid rollback of democracy following his narrow victory over Tymoshenko in the 2010 presidential election.
Yanukovych, however, has so far said nothing directly about the Euro 2012 boycott. Writing in the journal New Eastern Europe, the Polish journalist Piotr Pogorzelski likened Yanukovych to an "ostrich". He said the authorities were maintaining a silence to avoid giving Ukraine's pro-government TV channels a pretext to cover the story.
Tymoshenko is being held in a female prison colony in the eastern city of Kharkiv, the venue for Germany's first group stage match on 13 June against the Netherlands. She is refusing to leave prison for treatment in hospital, but has indicated she may be willing to move on Wednesday.
Germany has offered to treat her – a request Kiev has refused – though it has allowed German doctors to visit her.
Yanukovych's aides have accused Berlin of bullying behaviour and "cold war tactics". Last week the European commission president, José Manuel Barroso, said he would not attend Euro 2012 games in Ukraine; several other EU leaders have followed suit.
Downing Street has refused to say whether British ministers will travel to Ukraine, where all three of England's group stage matches will take place. Read More
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