Lithuanian Prime Minister thinks isolating Ukraine over Yulia Tymoshenko treatment not a good idea

Kubilius believes the Ukrainian leaders have to be clearly told that "Ukraine's prospects for EU membership might be very shady at least in the short-term, if Tymoshenko's case is not solved in a legally transparent way and with regard to human rights."

"These things have to be told to the Ukrainian leaders and the Ukrainian people very openly, so I am not to judge whether the refusal to go to Yalta, where Ukraine's European prospects are usually discussed, is the best solution. The European leaders have to send an unambiguous message to the Ukrainian leaders," the Lithuanian premier said in an interview to the Žinių Radijas (News Radio) on Thursday.

"Ukraine's rapprochement with the EU is a very important process, changing the whole geopolitical prospect in the region, and, therefore, I dare to say, such mistakes of the Ukrainian leadership as we see are deplorable and cause really many problems on Ukraine's road to euro-integration," Kubilius said.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė said at a press conference on Tuesday she had not decided yet whether to go to Yalta.

Grybauskaitė said that the human rights issue is an issue that Europe can make no concessions about, but Ukraine's isolation would "affect or suspend its European perspective considerably," therefore, a decision on participation in the Yalta meeting should be made in the light of "all argumentation and geopolitical interests of the region."

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has decided not to go to Ukraine due to the treatment of the ex-Ukrainian prime minister. The Yalta event will also be boycotted by a few other European leaders, Barroso's spokeswoman said on Monday.

Director of the Information Policy Department of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oleh Voloshin, told news agency Interfax on Monday the presidents of Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Austria and Italy had beforehand notified Ukraine that they would not participate in the meeting for various reasons.

The meeting of Central European presidents is scheduled to take place in the Black Sea resort of Yalta on 11-12 May.

According to Oleshin, the presidents of Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro and Hungary are still expected to come.