Peace and Justice Post

• Miriam Elder in Yalta
• guardian.co.uk, Sunday 25 September 2011

Viktor Yanukovych (centre) with Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin in Russia. Photograph: Sergei Karpukhin/EPA

The EU is threatening to downgrade relations with Ukraine and frustrate its attempts to move closer into Europe‘s orbit unless the former Soviet republic drops a landmark case rapidly heading towards a verdict against its former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s president, has been warned that Europe sees the case against Tymoshenko as a politically motivated attempt to silence his chief rival.

EU officials say a conviction would be “incompatible with EU values” and jeopardise the finalisation of a free trade agreement that would solidify the country’s ties to Brussels.

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