Tymoshenko urges Yanukovych to hold NSDC meeting, pass decision to sign agreement with EU

Kharkiv, November 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has asked President Viktor Yanukovych to hold a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine and pass a decision to sign the Association Agreement with the EU.

"I advise you and ask you as soon as possible to convene the National Security and Defense Council, listen with a father's attention, as you can do this, all the doubts of your government regarding complicated relations with Russia, to admit that you understand their sincere anxiety,and immediately to take a decision to sign Association Agreement at the unscheduled sitting of the NSDC," she said in a letter to the president, which was read out by her defense counsel Serhiy Vlasenko outside Central Clinical Hospital No. 5 in Kharkiv on Friday.

"This is a unique chance to stay alive as a politician, because today, by killing the [EU] agreement, you're making the biggest mistake in your life."

Tymoshenko said that her first reaction on the report of refusal to sign the agreement "was a desire to kill Yanukovych."

"Frankly speaking, after the government refused to sign Agreement with the European Union, I just wanted to kill you [Yanukovych]. I think that 70% of population that trusted you felt the same. Forgive us all these spontaneous emotions, because sometimes it's hard for all of us to get control. But now we shouldn't give way to aggression, and to save situation by all possible means. You're the only one who can do that. That's why I'm appealing to you with this letter," the ex-premier said.