Ukraine’s former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has stopped the hunger strike, which she announced in protest against the cruel treatment in prison, Ukrainian Unian news agency reported on Wednesday.
Tymoshenko was transferred on Wednesday from the prison in Kharkov, where she is serving a seven-year sentence, to a local hospital for treatment for back pains.
“She has ended the hunger strike, we started to build a normal feed system,” the agency reported, citing Tymoshenko’s German doctor Lutz Harms. The doctor believes that Tymoshenko’s treatment process will take a long period of time. “You can’t say anything for sure, but most likely it will be not less than eight weeks,” Harms said. He added that the former prime minister now drinks only water and juices, later she will star taking solid foods.
Tymoshenko had been fasting for nearly 20 days
On Tuesday, Ukraine had to call off a Central European summit in Yalta after some European leaders refused to attend the event over alleged ill-treatment of jailed West-leaning ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko.
Last week, photos were circulated in the media showing Tymoshenko with bruises on her body, which she claims were inflicted by prison guards as they were forcibly transferring her to a hospital.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said European leaders refused to attend the summit before the scandal erupted around Tymoshenko’s alleged assault and battery in prison.
