Poland welcomes pardon of former Ukrainian minister

Yuriy Lutsenko walks free: photo - EPA/Aleksandr Kosarev

“The move shows that Ukraine thinks seriously about concluding an association agreement with the European Union,” said former president Aleksander Kwasniewski in an interview with the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

Kwasniewski and erstwhile president of the European Parliament Pat Cox are special envoys of the European Parliament's monitoring mission to Ukraine.

“President Yanukovich’s move is a success of our mission which included over a dozen visits to Ukraine and talks with that country’s president and prime minister, as well as the opposition’, Kwasniewski added.

Asked if the release of Lutsenko bodes well for the plight of Yulia Tymoshenko, now serving a seven-year term, Kwasniewski said:

“We’ll be working on that. The news on Lutsenko shows that persistent diplomacy is a sensible thing to do.”

Yuriy Lutsenko was given a four-year sentence in February 2012 for embezzlement and abuse of office.

The same month, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) released a statement arguing that Lutsenko was “the victim of a political vendetta."

Meanwhile, Kwasniewski's positive sentiments were shared by Poland's foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, who described Lutsenko's release as “a move in the right direction”, writing on Sunday on his Twitter account.

Jaromir Sokolowski, foreign affairs chief in the chancellery of President Bronislaw Komorowski, echoed this optimistic reaction.

“In the opinion of the president it is a good step to restoring the positive image of Ukraine, which - together with reforms - is a condition of signing the EU-Ukraine association agreement at the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius this November," Sokolowski told PAP. (mk/nh)