Ukraine 'becoming like Belarus' after ex-PM jailing: press

(KIEV) - Ukraine is showing parallels to the authoritarian regime of President Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus after a court jailed its former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko for seven years, the press said Wednesday.

The West swiftly lashed out at Ukraine over signs of a political motivation her abuse of power trial, with the European Union starkly warning that it would reassess its relations with Kiev in the light of Tuesday's verdict.

Ukraine's leading online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda poured scorn on attempts by President Viktor Yanukovych to minimise the impact of the verdict by claiming that the decision was not final and based on a law dating back to Soviet times.

"The leading capitals of the world have already long ago understood these attempts to lead them astray," it wrote.

"It only accelerates the process in which the Ukrainian president is moving towards the status of a second European Lukashenko" it wrote. Lukashenko is now treated as a pariah by Europe after an opposition crackdown.

Ukrainska Pravda said the European Union has little interest in what kind of process could see Tymoshenko released and "what interests them is the result".

It said a planned visit by Yanukovych to Brussels on October 20 could now be shelved.

Moscow daily Vedomosti said that Yanukovych, who defeated Tymoshenko in bitter 2010 presidential elections, has now fallen into the inglorious list of world leaders who "put their recent opponents behind bars".

"This is the usual practice of Latin American and African leaders from the past, now joined by Alexander Lukashenko" who jailed dozens of his leading opponents after December elections in Belarus, it said.

"Yanukovych has led his country closer to Russia and Belarus, making his country into the third 'sovereign democracy' of Eastern Europe," it added.

Russia unusually joined in the Western criticism of the trial, with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin expressing bewilderment at the length of the sentence.

Leading journalist Vitaly Portnikov wrote in a commentary for Ukrainian online newspaper Levy Bereg that Yanukovych had managed the unlikely feat of being condemned simultaneously by the United States, European Union and Russia.

"Getting such a reaction from the world really must have required some work," said Portnikov, editor-in-chief of the TVi channel.

"By quarrelling at the same time with Moscow, Brussels and Washington, angering Warsaw and infuriating Berlin, Ukraine has become a unique state on the map of Europe," he wrote.

The difference between Ukraine and Belarus now was that at least Minsk "even in the most difficult circumstances" could count on the support of Russia, he said.

The Ukrainian edition of mass circulation daily Komosomolskaya Pravda asked in a headline above a policeman ushering Tymoshenko away: "What are the consequences going to be be for Ukraine? Friendship with Russia and a visa-free regime are both under threat."