Tymoshenko needs another independent examination and treatment outside jail, says ex-health minister

Former Ukrainian Health Minister Mykola Polischuk has said he believes that a medical examination of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko should be conducted again by independent doctors and medical treatment should provided outside the detention facility, in a hospital.

"I can unambiguously say that there are pathological changes that cause excruciating pain and that can dramatically increase with any stress – this could be sneezing, coughing and, or any stress... This pain may be in any position - lying, or sitting," he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday.

Polischuk said that these changes "severely limit" Tymoshenko's movement.

"I can say unambiguously that this requires medical treatment in a specialized institution, because patients with such symptoms are not treated in such an institution as a medical unit in jail," he said.

"It's impossible to cure this disease only through injections and various manipulations without any medical treatment in a specialized institution," he added.

Polischuk said that he had made his conclusions based on the data sent to him from Serhiy Vlasenko, the head of Tymoshenko's defense team, analyzing the results of an MRI scan, as well as the conclusion of the doctor who examined the ex-premier.