Imprisoned former Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko ends hunger strike

Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Yulia Tymoshenko, the former Ukrainian prime minister and opposition leader, has ended her hunger strike at the urging of pro-European Union supporters.

Her daughter Eugenia announced the end of the hunger strike today and acknowledged the role played by the pro-EU protesters in her mother's decision.

Tymoshenko has been an outspoken critic of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich's November 21 decision to delay Ukraine's membership bid in the EU, and undertook a fast on November 25 in support for a Ukraine-EU alliance. It is unclear whether the November hunger strike was carried through until today.

Eugenia described her mother's motivation for beginning her late November fast as an occasion for unity with the pro-EU demonstrators. "She thinks that the events underway on Maidan [the Square] are the most important, and the hunger strike is all she could do to express her solidarity with Maidan."

Tymoshenko was sentenced in 2011 to seven years in prison for abusing her power during a 2009 natural gas deal with Russia.

[CNN] [UPI] [Kyiv Post]