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Jailed Tymoshenko urges EU to sign pact with Ukraine

02 November 2011, 15:35 CET
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Jailed Tymoshenko urges EU to sign pact with Ukraine

Yulia Tymoshenko - Photo EC

(KIEV) - Ukraine's jailed ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko urged the European Union on Wednesday to sign a free trade pact with Kiev despite the outrage in Brussels over her sentencing on abuse of office charges.

The 2004 Orange Revolution leader said in a letter to EU leaders transmitted from jail by her relatives that she still wanted Ukraine to sign an Association Agreement with Brussels that represents the first step toward EU membership.

"I ask you to sign the Association and Free Trade Area Agreements no matter my fate," Tymoshenko said. "I cannot allow my personal freedom to be the reason for the death of the European dream of Ukraine's people."

The European Union postponed an October 20 summit meeting with Ukraine over Tymoshenko's jailing, which it calls a part of a political vendetta against the old cabinet orchestrated by President Viktor Yanukovych.

Ex-Soviet Ukraine had hoped to sign the Association Agreement by the end of the year and become a formal EU member within a decade. But it is now also studying the option of joining a new customs union led by Russia.


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