- Title: UKRAINE: Yulia Tymoshenko ends hunger strike says daughter
- Date: 6th December 2013
- Summary: KHARKIV, UKRAINE (DECEMBER 6, 2013) (REUTERS) GUARD HOUSE AT THE HOSPITAL WHERE FORMER PRIME MINISTER, YULIA TYMOSHENKO, IS BEING HELD CAMERAMAN IN SNOW POLICE CAR DRIVING THROUGH GATES CAMERAS VARIOUS OF DAUGHTER OF FORMER PRIME MINSTER, YULIA TYMOSHENKO, YEVGENIA TYMOSHENKO, WALKING TOWARDS REPORTERS (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) DAUGHTER OF FORMER PRIME MINSTER, YULIA TYMOS
- Embargoed: 21st December 2013 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Ukraine
- Country: Ukraine
- Topics: Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAATHUSJDJKFWM2F8L7CFO55OCE
- Story Text: Yevegenia Tymoshenko, the daughter of imprisoned former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymosheno says her mother has stopped her hunger strike at the request of anti-government protesters.
Jailed Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko has ended a hunger strike after 12 days her daughter Yevgenia Tymoshenko told reporters on Friday (December 6).
Former Prime Minister Tymoshenko, jailed in 2011 for abuse of office over a gas deal signed with Russia, had announced a hunger strike in support of opposition protests against the Ukrainian government's decision to spurn a landmark trade pact with the European Union.
The country's about-face on the EU trade deal and a harsh police crackdown on protesters last weekend has brought hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians from all over the country to the streets of the capital Kiev and other cities.
The younger Tymoshenko said her mother halted her hunger strike, relenting to the demands of the protesters who have turned out in numbers unseen since the Orange Revolution she helped to lead nine years ago.
"She was starving herself in solidarity with the people who are standing on the Maidan (square where protests are held). And she will stop the hunger strike today. I am very thankful, because as a family, we were very worried about her health. I repeat, her condition now is critical. She is very weak, isn't moving, not moving around, and that's why, at the request of the people she is stopping the hunger strike," Yegvenia Tymoshenko said.
Tymoshenko, the main political opponent of President Viktor Yanukovich, was sentenced to seven years in prison in October 2011 in a separate abuse-of-office trial but has been treated in a state-run hospital since last May for back trouble.
Her case has soured Ukraine's diplomatic ties, with many in the West viewing it as an example of selective justice and urging her release. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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