A Ukrainian opposition leader has said a guilty verdict against former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko will crush Ukraine’s hopes for associate EU membership.
“If there is a guilty verdict Ukraine will not be able to sign an association agreement, and we will turn into something like Belarus,” Arseniy Yatsenyuk, leader of the Front of Change party, told supporters outside a court in Kiev.
Ukraine is expecting to clinch associate EU membership and free trade zone with the 27 EU nations this year.
Yatsenyuk's comments came after a judge ruled on Tuesday Tymoshenko exceeded her powers when she signed a gas deal with Russia in 2009 which prosecutors say was ruinous for Ukraine’s economy. They have asked for a seven-year sentence for the one-time Orange Revolution leader.
Tymoshenko claims the charges against her are politically motivated and has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.
“We will ask the European Court to speed up the consideration of the Tymoshenko case,” Yatsenyuk said.
The EU and the United States have questioned the legitimacy of the trial.
