According to former Prime Minister and opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko’s defence lawyer, Serhiy Vlasenko, the European Court of Human Rights has applied Rule 39 and ordered the government of Ukraine to treat Ms Tymoshenko in hospital

On Monday Thorbjørn Jagland today expressed his concerns over the treatment of persons detained in Ukraine. He also expressed particular concern about Yulia Tymoshenko’s deteriorating health condition

Ukrainians who have suffered from doctors’ mistakes are normally pessimistic about their chances of gaining redress in domestic courts however at a press conference this week human rights activists demonstrated that justice can be found closer to home

Dmytro Loban, the State Prosecutor asserted at a press briefing that the former Internal Affairs Minister had “refused” to go to court; that the Penitentiary Service medical staff saw no grounds and that it was the defence’s fault that he had been in court for 15 hours the day before until 23.30

The Human Rights Ombudsperson Nina Karpachova hs stated that former Prime Minister, presidential candidate and opposition leader, Yulia Tymoshenko, is in a grave condition in the detention unit [SIZO]. Ms Karpachova made an unannounced visit the previous evening

Despite serious grounds for concern over the former Minister of Internal Affairs’ health, as well as over his prosecution and detention in general, Judge Serhiy Vovk is refusing to hospitalize him, claiming that the SIZO Administration is responsible for his treatment

Human rights stress the need for a range of measures to ensure that prisoners receive proper medical care, including removing medical staff from under the jurisdiction of the State Penitentiary Service and making changes to the Penal Code and the Law on Pre-Trial Detention;

Measures are planned on 6 October to highlight the grave situation in Ukrainian SIZO [pre-trial detention centres] where people with illnesses, sometimes very serious, are not given proper treatment or moved to the appropriate hospitals

Despite clear warnings from doctors about a serious health condition, the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv on Monday refused to release former Minister of Foreign Affairs Yury Lutsenko from custody

Irina Lutsenko, wife of the former Minister of Internal Affairs, Yury Lutsenko, has confirmed that her husband was taken on Thursday morning for examination at the Kyiv City Diagnostic Centre

Iryna Lutsenko, wife of former Minister of Internal Affairs Yury Lutsenko has asked the presiding judge in the trial of her husband, Serhiy Vovk to give permission for him to receive professional medical care outside the SIZO or detention unit. Vovk refused

During examinations in May, the results of which were only made public last week, and on 30 August, doctors considered that the former Minister of Internal Affairs required specialized hospital care. Instead he continues to be held in a detention centre without the appropriate specialists or equipment with more examinations prescribed

The Human Rights Ombudsperson, Nina Karpachova has appealed to the management of the Penitentiary Service over the state of health of former Minister of internal Affairs, Yury Lutsenko who has been held in detention since December 2010

The Committee warns that failure to provide medical care for the former Minister of Internal Affairs held in custody since December 2010 is in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. It demands that Lutsenko be immediately provided with proper specialized hospital care

The Prosecutor General’s Office has ordered the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Prosecutor to reinvestigate the death of a remand prisoner, 27-year-old Viktor Skvortsov who died on 27 January 2011 in the city tuberculosis unit

In 2011 the Ministry of Health did not make one purchase of medicines and all 240 tenders ended without any result. Whether, as Dzerkalo Tyzhnya suggests, the causes are not merely incompetence, or not, there is a grave lack of medicines in the country and no sign of real measures to deal with this

The partnership “For Honest Public Procurement in Ukraine” has published an open appeal to the President over the failure by the Health Ministry to run vitally needed tenders for medication and consequent grave risk to large numbers of people with very serious illnesses

Chronic underfunding and a situation where tenders for medicine are held late are leading to an increase in multi-resistant forms of tuberculosis. At present some regions are running out of medication, others also have a shortfall

The Kharkiv authorities have closed the only clinic in the village settlement of Borhy which had inpatient facilities. There is one GP for 5,400 people and a 4-6 hour journey by public transport to the nearest hospital

The Leader of the opposition BYuT Party, former Presidential candidate and Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko has been detained in Kyiv. This was on the basis of a court order from the Pechersky District Court in Kyiv “in order to carry out investigation activities”.