Tymoshenko can't leave Ukraine

BRUSSELS, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- The European community is disappointed that Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko was unable to travel to Brussels, the European president said.

Tymoshenko was to meet European leaders this week but prosecutors in Kiev didn't give her permission to leave the country. The opposition leader is facing charges she misused federal funds during her tenure as prime minister.

European Commission President Jerzy Buzek said he was disappointed that he wasn't able to meet the opposition leader.

"I was ready and available to meet her during her stay in Brussels and to discuss with her the situation in Ukraine and the current state of EU-Ukraine relations in her capacity as leader of the main opposition party," he said in a statement.

Tymoshenko, in statements published on her Web site, said investigators wouldn't give her permission to leave the country because they were afraid of the consequences.

"I think they were afraid not that I wouldn't return but that I would return," she said.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, that "the level of confidence and trust of Ukraine is growing in the world."

Opponents of Yanukovych claim he is too cozy with former Ukrainian patrons in Moscow.