Yanukovych: no foreign treatment for Tymoshenko

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Sunday nixed the idea that jailed and ailing ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko be released for treatment abroad ahead of next month's Euro football tournament. Germany has offered to provide medical care to the 2004 Orange Revolution leader and hinted of a possible boycott by Chancellor Angela Merkel of matches played in Ukraine once the tournament kicks off in Poland, which is co-hosting the event, on June 8. Yanukovych told national television that pro-government deputies were firmly against the idea of changing the country's laws to allow convicts to receive treatment abroad. "If they suddenly adopt this law, only imagine -- thousands of convicts with money will begin corrupting the medical profession," Tymoshenko's arch-rival told Channel One. "They (the deputies) told me they cannot do this," Yanukovych said. The 51-year-old Tymoshenko was jailed for seven years in October on abuse of power charges that she claimed were a part of a vendetta by Yanukovych against her and her former government team. EU leaders have rallied to Tymoshenko's cause, and some have already vowed to skip all football-related events hosted by Ukraine. The spat has halted Ukraine's progress toward possible EU membership and nudged it further into Russia's orbit amid attempts by Moscow to build closer economic and military alliances with former Soviet republics. Yanukovych said he took EU concerns over Tymoshenko seriously and rejected the idea that Kiev's relations with the 27-nation bloc could be irreparably harmed. "I would like to note that we have not ruined our relations with a single European country -- not one," Yanukovych said in the televised interview. "We are obviously concerned about the tone of the high-level remarks coming from EU countries, and we are ready to answer all their questions. But we reserve the right to decide when we do this," he said. Ukraine was awarded the Euro 2012 together with Poland in 2007 in a decision meant to reward and encourage both countries' progress toward Western standards and build better relations between themselves. But Tymoshenko and her Orange team lost a bitterly fought presidential election to Yanukovych in January 2010 and had a range of criminal cases launched against her and her allies in the subsequent months. Yanukovych for his part had hoped to use one of the world's most prestigious tournaments to showcase his own government's progress and poured vast resources into building new stadiums and modernising airports. Some analysts have credited him with putting Ukraine's Euro preparations back on track after inheriting a project that appeared hopelessly behind schedule and mismanaged by Tymoshenko's team. Yanukovych said in the interview he was certain that Ukraine's status in the world would rise once nations appreciated the scale of his government's recent achievements. "When I look at the stadiums, airports, hotels and roads that we built, I just know that the world's respect and trust in our government will only grow," Yanukovych said. the