Tymoshenko security will be stepped up

The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) has informed the State Guard Department that the life of presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko may be in danger.

"Today SBU notified the State Guard Department, which is responsible for ensuring the security of Yulia Tymoshenko as a presidential candidate, that there exists a threat to her life," Tymoshenko's spokeswoman, Maryna Soroka, told Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.

The SBU press center has confirmed the report, adding that this information does not apply to Tymoshenko alone.

Ukraine's special service believes that presidential candidates may face a certain degree of danger if they travel to the country's southeastern regions.

Interfax has been told that this information also applies to presidential candidate and MP Petro Poroshenko.

SBU head Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, for his part, has said that the special service, the State Protection Directorate and other agencies are making every effort to ensure the security of each presidential candidate.

"As far the presidential elections are concerned, SBU is working together with the State Protection Directorate and other units responsible for security during the elections themselves and the security of the presidential candidates. We are working directly with the candidates' campaign staff. And we are investigating all of these threats - both verbal, those made via the Internet, rumors and other information. We will do our best to prevent any candidate from encountering a serious threat," Nalyvaichenko said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.

Ensuring the security of each presidential candidate is among the Ukrainian government's priorities, he said.

"We can say that the threats voiced in Luhansk targeted both Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko and Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko. In that situation, we took timely measures and allowed the candidates to leave the places where they could have run into danger and go ahead with their meetings in other places," he said.

The special services and other agencies are working to inform the presidential candidates of any possible threats, Nalyvaichenko said.