This week's news on Viktor Yanukovych.
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Profiting from Power?: The Dubious Business of the Yanukovych Clan
16 MaySPIEGEL ONLINE - International
When President Viktor Yanukovych assumed Ukraine's top office, he pledged to battle corruption. Now Ukrainians suspect he is abusing his position to profit himself, family and friends. They operate a network of successful firms, while the purchase of his luxury residence has been skillfully obfuscated. -
EU ministers to meet over Tymoshenko amid calls for Euro 2012 boycott
13 MayThe Guardian World News
Viktor Yanukovych shows no sign of allowing rival to seek medical help abroad as calls grow for tournament boycott
European governments will try for the first time to reach a common position on the Euro 2012 football championships in Ukraine next month, under rising pressure to agree a boycott after Kiev threatened to try the former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko for murder.
With the regime of President Viktor Yanukovych upping the ante against Tymoshenko and showing no signs of yielding to German-led pressure to release her for medical treatment overseas, a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday is expected to see a clash between Poland – which is co-hosting the football tournament with Ukraine – and Germany.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Friday described Yanukovych as a "dictator", while the Polish president, Bronislaw Komorowski, last week pleaded against an EU boycott of the football. Newspapers in Kiev loyal to the government, meanwhile, let loose at Berlin, harking back to the Nazi occupation of Ukraine during the second world war.
EU foreign ministers will hear calls for a concerted boycott of Ukraine, usually "from countries that failed to qualify for the championship", said an EU diplomat.
Tymoshenko is serving a seven-year jail sentence on what the EU and the US view as trumped up and politically motivated. She has been tortured and beaten while on hunger strike, according to her family and supporters.
A string of other opposition politicians in Ukraine have also been jailed.
Yanukovych had to cancel a summit of east European leaders in Yalta last week after 13 of 20 heads of state or government refused to attend in protest.
Despite the increasing pressure, there is little sign of him backing down. On Friday he described the human rights dispute as a "passing" phenomenon, while the Ukrainian state prosecutor's office said it would announce murder charges against Tymoshenko within a fortnight – before Euro 2012 begins – related to the killing of a Ukrainian MP and businessman in 1996.
Tymoshenko is in hospital after almost three weeks of a hunger strike. The Lithuanian president, Dalia Grybauskaite, visited her in hospital last Friday. "She's in good condition considering she's just come off a 20-day hunger strike," she said.
Poland, which, with Ukraine, has spent years and billions preparing for the matches, is calling on Yanukovych to relent on Tymoshenko, while also arguing against a boycott and proposing that the Euro 2012 final be transferred to Warsaw.
With the England team due to play several of its opening games in Ukraine, the Cameron government has not yet reached a position on what to do, according to diplomats. Britain is anxious about making Ukraine a European pariah, akin to neighbouring Belarus.
Senior German officials have been in Kiev seeking a solution to the standoff, while the loyalist press in Ukraine has been likening Merkel to Hitler.
"In 1941 the German administration forced naked Ukrainian girls into goods wagons bound for Germany. In the 21st century, German customs officials strip Ukrainian workers naked and take their things away," said the daily Segodnya, which is owned by an oligarch friendly with Yanukovych. "Germany wants to establish its rules and dictate its will on today's Ukraine. Even the EU counts for nothing if we are to be seen as sub-humans."
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds -
EU ministers to meet over Ukraine's incarceration of Yulia Tymoshenko
13 Maywww.guardian.co.uk
Viktor Yanukovych shows no signs allowing rival to seek medical help abroad as EU ministers meet to discuss Euro 2012 boycott
European governments will try for the first time to reach a common position on the Euro 2012 football championships in Ukraine next month, under rising pressure to agree a boycott after Kiev threatened to try the former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko for murder.
With the regime of President Viktor Yanukovych upping the ante against Tymoshenko and showing no signs of yielding to German-led pressure to release her for medical treatment overseas, a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday is expected to see a clash between Poiland – which is co-hosting the football tournament with Ukraine – and Germany.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Friday described Yanukovych as a "dictator", while the Polish president, Bronislaw Komorowski, last week pleaded against an EU boycott of the football. Newspapers in Kiev loyal to the government, meanwhile, let loose at Berlin, harking back to the Nazi occupation of Ukraine during second world war.
EU foreign ministers will hear calls for a concerted boycott of Ukraine, usually "from countries that failed to qualify for the championship," said an EU diplomat.
Tymoshenko is serving a seven-year jail sentence on what the EU and the US view as trumped up political grounds. She has been tortured and beaten while on hunger strike, according to her family and supporters.
A string of other opposition politicians in Ukraine have also been jailed.
Yanukovych had to cancel a summit of east European leaders in Yalta last week after 13 of 20 heads of state or government refused to attend in protest.
Despite the increasing pressure, there is little sign of him backing down. On Friday he described the human rights dispute as a "passing" phenomenon while the Ukrainian state prosecutor's office said it would unveil murder charges against Tymoshenko within a fortnight – before Euro 2012 begins – related to the killing of a Ukrainian MP and businessman in 1996.
Tymoshenko is in hospital after almost three weeks of a hunger strike. The Lithuanian president, Dalia Grybauskaite, visited her in hospital last Friday.
"She's in good condition considering she's just come off a 20-day hunger strike," said Grybauskaite.
Poland, which with Ukraine, has spent years and billions preparing for the matches, is calling on Yanukovych to relent on Tymoshenko while also arguing against a boycott and proposing that the Euro 2012 final be transferred to Warsaw.
With the English team is due to play several of its opening games in Ukraine, the Cameron government has not yet reached a position on what to do, according to diplomats. Britain is anxious about making Ukraine a European pariah, akin to neighbouring Belarus.
Senior German officials have been in Kiev seeking a solution to the standoff, while the loyalist press in Ukraine has been likening Merkel to Hitler.
"In 1941 the German administration forced naked Ukrainian girls into goods wagons bound for Germany. In the 21st century, German customs officials strip Ukrainian workers naked and take their things away," said the daily Segodnya, which is owned by an oligarch friendly with Yanukovych. "Germany wants to establish its rules and dictate its will on today's Ukraine. Even the EU counts for nothing if we are to be seen as sub-humans."
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
