Tymoshenko goes on hunger strike in protest against falsification of elections, says Vlasenko

Former Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko has gone on hunger strike in protest against the falsification of the parliamentary elections in Ukraine, the ex-premier's defense lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko has said.

"I am announcing a hunger strike in protest against the falsification of the elections," Vlasenko quoted Tymoshenko as saying.

According to him, the ex-premier submitted a relevant statement to the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine on Monday, refused food, and said she will only drink water.

Being in jail, her opportunities to express her protest are limited, he said.

"You know that she has been in jail illegally for on year and three months, and regrettably, she has very few opportunities to express her protest. She is not even always able to express it to her colleagues, her fellow party members. Unfortunately, she has no other means of expressing her protest, though this endangers her health, of course," Vlasenko told reporters on Monday.

There are two conditions on which Tymoshenko may agree to stop her hunger strike - "in case of objective assessments from international observers, first, and from the Central Elections Commission, second", he said.

In April, Tymoshenko refused to take food after she had been "forcibly" transferred to a Kharkiv hospital. She alleged that she was treated violently by the penitentiary authorities. Later, Ukrainian media published photographs of the former premier showing bruises on her stomach and wrists. The Penitentiary Service and the Prosecutor General's Office denied the allegations.