EU makes new bid to reach deal on Ukraine's jailed Tymoshenko

By Richard Balmforth KIEV (Reuters) - European Union mediators were to resume a push on Tuesday aimed at securing the release of Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, with EU politicians warning that time is running out for the signing of a landmark trade agreement next month. Meanwhile, Russia, dismayed by the westward course of its former Soviet ally, gave vent to its anger again, charging Ukraine with being way behind in its payments for gas deliveries. Its words revived concerns of a new gas "war". The agreements on association and free trade, to be signed at an EU-Ukraine summit on November 28, offer the former Soviet republic of 46 million people the chance of a historic shift west away from Russia. But signature hinges on the release of ex-prime minister Tymoshenko, a fierce opponent of President Viktor Yanukovich. She was jailed in 2011 for seven years for abuse of office after a trial which the EU says was political. Her case has become symbolic for the 28-member EU of the practice of "selective justice" which the bloc wants ended in Ukraine before the summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. Last week, EU ministers warned Yanukovich the clock was against him for reaching a deal that could ensure the signing. Irish politician Pat Cox and former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, who have shuttled in and out of Ukraine for more than a year-and-a-half in an effort to nail down a deal, were expected in Kiev later on Tuesday. Their attention is focused on agreeing terms under which Tymoshenko, 52, can travel to EU member Germany to receive medical treatment for spinal problems. Yanukovich has balked at granting her a pardon but says he will sign into law any draft from parliament which would allow her to take a break from prison and go abroad for treatment. Her supporters are still pressing for a "full amnesty" so that she could be cleared of her jail sentence and free to return to politics one day. She said on Friday, however, that she would accept any compromise agreeable to the two-man mediation mission. RUSSIAN ANGER "We are determined to do everything we can to encourage the Ukrainian authorities to find the solution acceptable to all sides in Ukraine and acceptable to any host state in the European Union that would receive Mrs Tymoshenko for treatment if she's released on humanitarian grounds," Cox said in Lithuania on Monday. "This remains the core objective of our mission, and we are determined to do everything we can to make it succeed." EU foreign ministers are due to give an assessment of Ukraine's record at a meeting on November 18 and decide whether it has met the key criteria, including ending "selective justice", to allow the signing to go ahead. The EU bloc itself is split between those member states, such as Poland, which give greater weight to the need to prise Ukraine away from Russia's historical embrace and those, like Sweden and the Netherlands, which insist on the bloc not compromising on principles of civil rights and justice for the sake of bringing Ukraine closer into the European orbit. Cox and Kwasniewski were expected to see members of the presidential administration, and possibly Yanukovich himself. They were also due to go to the northern town of Kharkiv to see Tymoshenko, who is in hospital under prison guard there. As the two envoys prepared for meetings with opposition and government officials, there was a new show of anger from Russia, which has tried unsuccessfully to persuade Ukraine to stay in the ex-Soviet family and join a Moscow-led Customs Union with other ex-Soviet republics. The Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom demanded Ukraine's Naftogaz pay an overdue gas bill "urgently", saying it was extremely concerned about the debt. Cash-strapped Ukraine, which faces huge foreign debt repayments next year, imports nearly all of its gas from Russia. Rows over pricing caused two gas wars in the winters of 2006 and 2008, with Moscow halting deliveries not only to Ukraine but also to the rest of Europe. Ironically, the tension between Ukraine and Russia over gas prices goes back to Tymoshenko's time as prime minister. The abuse of office charge for which she was sentenced relates to a 2009 deal which she brokered. Yanukovich's government says that deal saddled the economy with an exorbitant price for gas - currently at around $400 per thousand cubic meters - but Russia has refused to yield to the Kiev government's repeated entreaties to bring the price down. (Writing By Richard Balmforth; Editing by Angus MacSwan)