Activists of Kharkiv branch of the Batkivschyna All-Ukrainian Union celebrated the New Year near Central Clinical Hospital No. 5, where the convicted former Ukrainian prime minister and leader of the Batkivschyna Party, Yulia Tymoshenko, undergoes treatment.
The ex-premier's supporters set up and decorated three Christmas trees near the entrance to the hospital. One of them was decorated with Christmas baubles with party symbols, a spokeswoman for Kharkiv regional organizations of the party, Yulia Hermanova has said.
"We directed a beam of a large flashlight to the window of Yulia Volodymyrivna [Tymoshenko]. At midnight we lit firework sparklers, shouted 'Happy New Year!' and 'Free Yulia!' And then sang the national anthem of Ukraine", Hermanova said.
This is the second New Year, which Kharkiv activists of Batkivschyna celebrate near the ex-premier. Last year, they gathered outside Kachanivska penal colony No. 54, where Tymoshenko was transferred on December 30, 2011, for serving her sentence.
On October 11, 2011, Pechersky District Court in Kyiv sentenced Tymoshenko to seven years in prison for abuse of office in signing gas contracts with Russia in 2009. She has served her sentence in Kachanivska Penal Colony in Kharkiv since late December 2011.
On May 9, 2012, Tymoshenko was transferred to Central Clinical Hospital No. 5 in Kharkiv to undergo a course of treatment.
