Ukraine's leading opposition party, Batkivshchyna (Fatherland), whose leader Yulia Tymoshenko was arrested on Friday, called for creation of the nationwide Resistance Committee, party's first deputy chairman, Alexander Turchinov said on Saturday.
Turchinov urged the country's opposition political forces to unite under the aegis of the so-called All-Ukrainian Resistance Committee.
"The Resistance Committee should unite all the political parties and non-government organizations that consider independent Ukraine, freedom, democracy, European prospects and well-being of the people as the main values," Batkivshchyna quoted Turchinov in a statement as saying.
Turchinov, who is also a former Ukraine's first deputy prime minister, said that Tymoshenko's arrest became a turning point, preceding the collapse of democracy. "Having put Tymoshenko behind the bars without any legal grounds, the regime showed that it would not stop at anything to eliminate its opponents."
Tymoshenko, who was arrested on Friday, is accused of signing a 10-year natural gas import contract with Russia in 2009 that the court said was disadvantageous for the Ukrainian economy and was not approved by the government.
The former premier says the charges against her are politically motivated.
