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President Komorowski to start Ukraine trip ahead of elections

PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle 19.09.2012 11:41
Will Poland’s president meet with the imprisoned former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko during his visit to Ukraine, which begins Wednesday evening?

Yulia
Yulia Tymoshenko in prison: photo - EPA

The official schedule for President Bronislaw Komorowski’s visit – ahead of Ukrainian parliamentary elections in October - starts on Thursday morning, when the Polish head of state will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the monument to the victims of the Great Famine in Kiev.

Then the official welcoming ceremony will be hosted by President Viktor Yanukovych after which there will be bilateral talks, when Komorowski will also meet Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.

On Thursday afternoon, President Komorowski will meet with Ukrainian opposition leaders.

On Friday, the Polish and Ukrainian presidents will participate in the opening ceremony of the Polish Military Cemetery in Bykovnia, near the capital Kiev, where some of the over 20,000 Polish officers murdered on Stalin’s officers during WW II are buried.

No where on the official schedule, however, does it say that President Komorowski will meet with Yulia Tymoshenko, currently serving a seven year prison sentence for “abuse of powers” as prime minister when concluding a gas deal with Ukraine.

“The last time I met President Komorowski, on 1 July for the final of Euro 2012 in Kiev, he told me that when he comes again, he will visit Yulia Tymoshenko in Kharkov, if she was will still be in prison. We believe that this promise will be kept,” deputy head of the Tymoshenko’s Motherland party, Hryhoriy Nemyria, said in Brussels earlier in September.

'Not an easy trip'

A source close to President Komorowski said the Ukraine trip was a “difficult” one as he will be hoping to keep Kiev’s EU aspirations alive, following stalled talks on a new EU-Ukraine Agreement.

"The Polish side would like to do everything that is possible to maintain Ukraine's aspirations to integration further with the Western world,” the source told the TVP broadcaster.

Brussels criticized Ukraine for the imprisonment of Tymoshenko, which it believes was “politically motivated”.

Key to further developments between the EU and Ukraine are the elections on 28 October and foreign policy decisions taken by the new government with regard to relations with Russia, said the source. (pg)

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