Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former Interior Minister of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko will not be released before the end of their sentences, even if Ukraine needs this for further European integration, Regions Party parliamentary faction member, Yevhen Balytsky, said on Channel 5 on February 20.

"They will be set free as soon as they serve their sentences," the MP said.

According to Balytsky, the European Unions does not demand that "specifically these people be released, they demand that the legislation be changed in order to make it possible."

"I wish pressure was not being put on our country from outside. We are ready to listen [to recommendations]… But today we are not thinking about their release," he said while commenting on the EU's demands to set the leaders of the Ukrainian opposition free.