The Ukrainian parliament rejected a series of new laws on November 21, including those which would have allowed jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko to travel abroad for medical treatment. "The Rada [the Ukranian parliament] has torpedoed the legal efforts, which would have allowed Tymoshenko to be hospitalised and cared for abroad," writes online newspaper Ukrainskaya Pravda.

Several European leaders have already underlined that the signing of the association agreement at the EU's Eastern Partnership summit on November 28-29 would be impossible without the approval of these laws, in effect demanding the release of the former prime minister, who has been serving a seven-year prison sentence since 2011 for "abuse of power".

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