Tymoshenko’s tigress gives birth to 4 cubs

Ukrainian former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s white tigress Tigryulya on Monday gave birth to four cubs in a private Simferopol zoo, facility’s owner Oleh Zubkov said. Tymoshenko was presented the Bengal tiger cub in the end of 2009. The gift was made by the organizers and participants of the all-Ukrainian charity festival Chornomorski Igry (Black Sea Games). Having received this tigress Yulia Tymoshenko said: “2010 is a year of White Tiger so this gift is a talisman for the next year and I am dreaming to take it somewhere to political negotiations, especially, when it grows a bit. I am convinced the Year of White Tiger will be successful for Ukraine and for everyone of us.” Later, Tigryula was placed in Skazka (Fairytale) private zoo in the southern city of Simferopol. White tiger Patris was taken from France to become the ‘father’ of Tigryulya’s babies. One of the newborns is an albino, Zubkov said. Tymoshenko, a former prime minister and heroine of Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution, was jailed for seven years in October last year for abuse of office in what Western governments said was a politically motivated trial. She faces another trial on embezzlement charges. She denies wrongdoing and says she is being persecuted by President Viktor Yanukovych.