Berlin threatened on Wednesday to block a political and trade agreement between the European Union and Ukraine over the alleged maltreatment of jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Kiev’s association agreement with the EU would be scrapped if Tymoshenko is not provided appropriate medical care.
On Sunday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Germany would boycott the 2012 European Championships in Ukraine, which is co-hosting the soccer tournament with Poland.
The EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said they would follow suit. Five EU presidents, including Germany's Joachim Gauck, said they would not be travelling to a summit in Ukraine's Black Sea resort of Yalta next week.
It has all sparked speculation that the matches in Ukraine may be moved to another country.
Last week, photos appeared showing Tymoshenko with bruises on her body, which she claims were inflicted by prison guards as they were forcibly transferring her to a hospital. Tymoshenko, who is suffering from severe back pain and has been diagnosed with a herniated spinal disc, is being held at a penal colony in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
Ukrainian prosecutors have denied the allegations, saying the bruises were the result of Tymoshenko's "pushing against blunt objects."
Tymoshenko, a former prime minister and heroine of Ukraine's 2004 Orange revolution, was jailed for seven years in October last year for abuse of office in what Western governments said was a politically motivated trial. She faces another trial on embezzlement charges.
She denies wrongdoing and says she is being persecuted by President Viktor Yanukovych.
