Ukraine’s bill allowing Yulia Tymoshenko to receive medical treatment abroad fails

The Ukraine’s parliament vote, on which hangs the fate of both jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko and the country’s EU hopes, looks like it may not take place.

Attempts to agree a bill that would allow Yulia Tymoshenko to leave the country for medical treatment have stalled.

The EU has made the move a condition for it to sign an association and free trade deal with Ukraine this month.

But Ukraine has come under intense pressure from Russia not to sign.

Russia wants Ukraine to join its own customs union with Kazakhstan and Belarus, which it sees as a prototype rival to the EU.

Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych made a secretive visit to Moscow at the weekend.

MPs said on Wednesday that attempts between the government and opposition to finalize a bill allowing convicts to receive medical treatment abroad had failed.

The leader of the opposition Fatherland group, MP Arseniy Yatsenyuk, blamed Viktor Yanukovych’s ruling Party of the Regions for the failure, and said it was deliberately trying to destroy the EU deal.

“They are hindering Ukraine’s movement towards the European Union,” Arseniy Yatsenyuk said.