Yulia Tymoshenko has arrived in Kiev’s Independence Square to cheers of thousands, hours after being freed from jail.
The former Ukrainian prime minister is addressing the crowds there from her wheelchair.
Just hours earlier, Yulia Tymoshenko was freed following a vote by parliament on Friday demanding her release.
Speaking after President Viktor Yanukovych had left the capital Kiev, Yulia Tymoshenko said a “dictatorship has fallen”.
Yulia Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in jail in 2011 after a controversial verdict on her actions as prime minister.
She left the hospital in the eastern city of Kharkiv, where she had been held under prison guard, and flew to Kiev.
Yulia Tymoshenko told journalists at Kiev airport that those behind violence “must be punished”, the Interfax agency reports.
[youtube XeaVBmp7dP4 650]
