Sanctions could be imposed against Ukraine, says MEP Schulz

Europe could impose sanctions against Ukraine if the convicted leaders of the Ukrainian opposition do not participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections, MEP Werner Schulz has said.

"The elections will not be fair if certain people do not participate in these elections. Perhaps, there will be sanctions - we can consider, for example, the business links of [Ukrainian President Viktor] Yanukovych, or we can look at the machinations related to a huge corruption scheme during the construction of the [Olympiysky] stadium [in Kyiv], when the stadium was a third more expensive than planned," he said live on Channel 5.

Schulz said that Ukraine has "very big problems" with corruption.

As reported, MEPs Werner Schulz and Rebecca Harms arrived in Ukraine on June 13 to attend the Netherlands-Germany match in Kharkiv and meet with Ukraine's jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. The aircraft in which the MEPs left Germany for Ukraine flew into a thunderstorm, and the meeting with Tymoshenko was moved from the evening of June 13 to the morning of June 14.

Before the match, Harms and Schulz unrolled posters reading "Fair play in football and politics" and "Release all political prisoners."

Among the well-known political prisoners in Ukraine are Tymoshenko and former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko.