Envoy distances Ukraine from Tymoshenko sentencing Top bureaucrat postpones trip to Ottawa after diplomatic fallout; envoy says judicial system needs improvement. By Carl Meyer Published October 19, 2011

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Ukraine's envoy is distancing his government from the controversial ruling to jail his country's former prime minister—a move that drew fire from Prime Minister Stephen Harper—but has admitted the judicial system that sentenced her is flawed.

On Oct. 11 a Ukrainian court handed Yulia Tymoshenko a verdict of seven years in prison for abuse of power over a gas contract she signed with Russia. Ms. Tymoshenko, who accused Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych of rigging the trial, co-led the country's 2004 Orange Revolution and more recently has become its main opposition leader.

The ruling provoked a wave of criticism from world leaders, including Mr. Harper. He seized the opportunity at a Ukrainian Canadian Congress reception on Oct. 14 to say his government "is very concerned about the path the government of Ukraine appears to be taking." The prime minister, who was at the reception to receive the organization's highest award, added the sentencing "may have serious consequences for our bilateral relationship."

But in an interview with Embassy from his mission in downtown Ottawa, Ukrainian Chargé d'Affaires Mykhailo Khomenko said his government should not be blamed, since democratic principles prevented any interference in the judicial system.

"This is the decision of the court, and according to all democratic principles and the principle of the supremacy of law, all three of the branches of power are separate," he said. "The executive power cannot interfere in this process."

Mr. Khomenko, however, did acknowledge that the Ukrainian courts themselves were not perfect. He praised the roughly $21 million in Canadian International Development Agency-funded projects in the region—Ukraine is one of CIDA's 20 "countries of focus," the only one in eastern Europe, and CIDA is the fourth-largest technical assistance donor to Ukraine—and specifically pointed out the ones focused on judicial reform.

"Many projects of CIDA are directed to the improvement of our legal system and our system of courts, because we recognize that maybe our judicial system might have some lags," he said.

The sentencing came as Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin was scheduled to appear in Ottawa the week of Oct. 9 to take part in annual bilateral meetings.

His trip was postponed, said Mr. Khomenko, because he was needed back home to smooth things over with European leaders. Europe and Ukraine are on the verge of signing a free trade agreement as part of a future association agreement, and Mr. Yanukovych was scheduled to meet EU leaders in Brussels for talks.

"The press wrote some reactions of European politicians to this event, and Deputy Minister Klimkin had to [stay and] make some calls to make sure everything went well before those agreements," he said.

Even so, on Oct. 18 the EU announced that meeting had been postponed as well.

Still expecting free trade

Canada has had a lengthy relationship with Ukraine, not least because the first Ukrainian settlers in Canada 120 years ago eventually grew into the 1.2 million-strong Ukrainian diaspora that exists today, the third largest in the world. Canada was also the first Western country to recognize Ukrainian independence 20 years ago.

The Harper government has capitalized on this relationship by launching a bilateral forum in 2008 and free trade negotiations in 2010, including providing nuclear technical assistance. Mr. Harper visited Ukraine last year.

In addition, Canada officially recognized the Holodomor, the 1932-33 famine, as a Ukrainian genocide during former president Viktor Yushchenko's visit to Ottawa in 2008.

But this relationship has been tested ever since Mr. Yanukovych, a former USSR Communist Party member who draws his support from eastern Ukraine and is openly pro-Moscow, assumed power in early 2010. During Mr. Harper's visit to Ukraine, he symbolically appeared at a monument honouring a poet who predicted the country's freedom from Russia, and met with a historian arrested for revealing historic documents of Ukraine's anti-Soviet movement.

As such, Mr. Harper's Oct. 14 comment about the sentencing's potential effect on the Canada-Ukraine relationship had some wondering what would happen to the free trade talks—which saw their second round in May 2011, with the third round expected to occur this autumn—as well as the potential nuclear agreement.

Mr. Khomenko argued that because his government was not involved with the sentencing, he did not expect any official bilateral negotiations to be affected.

"We are ready to continue all the bilateral processes, and to work within the framework of our special partnership, to continue the FTA negotiations and all processes connected with our co-operation in the sphere of nuclear energy."

Trade Minister Ed Fast's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.