KIEV (Reuters) – Ukraine will use fighters and helicopters to guard its air space and put security and health services on full alert during the European soccer championship, but officials said on Tuesday they could do little to stem a likely flood of prostitutes.

The country’s top security and defense official, Andriy Klyuev, told security chiefs that the world would judge Ukraine by how it dealt with the security challenges posed by the month-long Euro-2012 tournament in June.

The leadership of President Viktor Yanukovich is under fire over the jailing of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko for abuse of office in what Western governments say is a politically-motivated prosecution. Several Western politicians have said they will stay away from Euro-2012 matches in protest.

The former Soviet republic, co-host of Euro-2012 with Poland, expects about one million fans for the 16 matches to be played in four Ukrainian cities – the biggest single influx of foreign visitors since it became independent 20 years ago.

Ukraine says it will have about 23,000 police on duty for the tournament which opens in Poland on June 8 and climaxes with the final in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev on July 1.

Anti-terrorism measures include having 10 surface-to-air missile units on standby. Four air fighters and two military helicopters will be deployed to protect air space over the host cities, the Defence Ministry said.

“We will be permanently monitoring the air space of the match cities. All security and emergency institutions and services will be on 24-hour duty from the beginning of June. Medical services and the emergencies ministry will be on heightened alert,” said Klyuev, who is secretary of Ukraine’s security and defense council.

KIEV (Reuters) – Anna darts gleefully around the two sparsely-furnished rooms situated through an archway off a steep street that climbs up from Kiev’s Independence Square. She is a general showing off her new headquarters.

“This is going to be our training room for our Euro strikes,” she says.

“That’s for the girls to get fit on for when they scrap with the police or have to run away from them,” she says, pointing to a set of wall-bars and an overhead muscle-tone pulley-bar by the front door.

The topless activists of the Femen women’s rights group, whose eye-catching antics have made them the cover girls of international feminist protest, are shouting loud and clear that their attendance at next month’s Euro-2012 soccer tournament – welcome or not – can be counted on.

Bare-breast public appearances – flash-mob-style – by the neo-feminist group are guaranteed throughout a month-long Euro soccer feast expected to draw a million or so foreign visitors.

Indeed, Anna Hutsol, a small 27-year-old with close-cut, flame-dyed hair and the group’s main ideologue, is warning of a blitz of stunts to dramatise Femen’s view that Euro-2012 will only fuel prostitution and the former Soviet republic’s sex industry which it says demeans women.

Ukraine’s police, gearing themselves to control hundreds of thousands of rowdy visiting fans, might find themselves just as busy with the small army of activists that Femen plans to field.

KIEV (Reuters) – Anna darts gleefully around the two sparsely-furnished rooms situated through an archway off a steep street that climbs up from Kiev’s Independence Square. She is a general showing off her new headquarters.

“This is going to be our training room for our Euro strikes,” she says.

“That’s for the girls to get fit on for when they scrap with the police or have to run away from them,” she says, pointing to a set of wall-bars and an overhead muscle-tone pulley-bar by the front door.

The topless activists of the Femen women’s rights group, whose eye-catching antics have made them the cover girls of international feminist protest, are shouting loud and clear that their attendance at next month’s Euro-2012 soccer tournament – welcome or not – can be counted on.

Bare-breast public appearances – flash-mob-style – by the neo-feminist group are guaranteed throughout a month-long Euro soccer feast expected to draw a million or so foreign visitors.

Indeed, Anna Hutsol, a small 27-year-old with close-cut, flame-dyed hair and the group’s main ideologue, is warning of a blitz of stunts to dramatize Femen’s view that Euro-2012 will only fuel prostitution and the former Soviet republic’s sex industry which it says demeans women.

Ukraine’s police, gearing themselves to control hundreds of thousands of rowdy visiting fans, might find themselves just as busy with the small army of activists that Femen plans to field.

KIEV (Reuters) – Lithuania’s president warned the Ukrainian leadership on Friday that a “crisis of trust” was growing between Ukraine and its European partners over jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko which could block its hopes of a future in mainstream Europe.

Dalia Grybauskaite, the Lithuanian president, spoke to reporters after seeing Tymoshenko for an hour in a hospital in the city of Kharkiv to where she was moved from prison on Wednesday for treatment for back pain.

Grybauskaite was the first foreign leader to see the former prime minister since Tymoshenko was jailed last October for seven years for alleged abuse of office after a trial denounced in the West as politically motivated.

Her plight, and her allegations that she was beaten by prison guards, has triggered an outcry in the West, prompting some politicians in the European Union to threaten to boycott next month’s European soccer championship which Ukraine is co-hosting.

Grybauskaite said the firebrand politician was strong in spirit and mind and was concerned only for the European future of her country, warning a crisis between Kiev and Europe risked growing.

“I want to stop as quickly as possible this small ball of mistrust from snowballing. We – neither Europe nor Ukraine, I hope – can allow this crisis to become an obstacle for Ukraine … and an obstacle to its European future,” she said.

Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, whom Tymoshenko accuses of waging a vendetta against her, cancelled a summit of Central and East European leaders on the Black Sea after several key participants said they were staying away.

KIEV (Reuters) – Ukraine’s jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, whose plight in prison has soured relations between the country’s leadership and the West, was moved to a local hospital on Wednesday in a high-security police convoy.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich has faced growing criticism over the conviction of Tymoshenko – and the authorities’ refusal to let her travel abroad for treatment for chronic back pain.

Her transfer from prison in the eastern city of Kharkiv to a nearby hospital for treatment under the supervision of German doctors was worked out last week in a compromise.

But Wednesday’s early morning transfer seemed unlikely to relieve pressure on Yanukovich who has been thrown on the back-foot by sharp Western criticism of his treatment of his rival.

Tymoshenko, 51, a former prime minister, was jailed last October for seven years for alleged abuse of power while in office, a charge she denied.

She says she is the victim of a vendetta by Yanukovich who narrowly beat her for the presidency in February 2010. The European Union and the United States have condemned her trial and sentencing as politically motivated and called for her to be released.

Outcry in the West intensified after Tymoshenko said she had been beaten in jail and went on hunger strike on April 20 in protest against alleged ill-treatment. Authorities have denied she was mistreated.

KIEV (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich on Tuesday called off a regional summit rather than host a partly-boycotted meeting and face a lecture over his treatment of imprisoned opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.

The foreign ministry’s announcement of the cancellation of the talks, planned for Thursday and Friday in Yalta, was an embarrassing setback for Yanukovich and a triumph for Tymoshenko, on hunger strike in prison in the city of Kharkiv.

The presidents of Germany, Austria, Italy, Croatia, Estonia, Slovenia, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic had all said they were pulling out of the informal summit which was attended by 20 heads of state when it was held in Poland last year.

The boycott followed allegations by Tymoshenko, a former prime minister, that she was beaten by prison guards last month.

The authorities have denied any mistreatment of the charismatic Tymoshenko, who was a driving force in the 2004 Orange Revolution street protests which doomed Yanukovich’s first bid for the presidency.

But the boycott threat, and the cancellation of the Yalta gathering, highlight Ukraine’s growing isolation as it prepares to host European soccer championships from June 8 to July 1.

“Due to the inability of some European state leaders to take part in the summit … Ukraine considers it sensible to delay it,” the ministry said in a statement. It said new dates for the gathering would be announced later.

KIEV (Reuters) – It was never meant to be like this. When Ukraine was named co-host of Europe’s biggest soccer feast in 2009, its leaders hailed the award as a milestone on the road to joining the European mainstream.

A delighted Yulia Tymoshenko, then prime minister, told her compatriots her government had scraped together “every kopeck” to make the dream possible.`

Her jubilant tone foresaw the former Soviet republic turning a confident, smiling face to the world in the month-long Euro-2012 soccer tournament which it will co-host with Poland, its cheer-leader in Europe.

That was in December 2009.

Now, with the first games to be played in Ukraine on June 9, Tymoshenko lies in prison on hunger strike, nursing bruises after what she said was a beating by prison guards. Images of her show her trademark peasant braids lying in a forlorn tress across her shoulder.

Western leaders, some of whose national teams will compete in Euro-2012, have reacted with horror.

Led by Germany, leaders of several European Union countries have called off scheduled visits to Ukraine in protest at the treatment meted out by President Viktor Yanukovich’s leadership.

KIEV (Reuters) – It was never meant to be like this. When Ukraine was named co-host of Europe’s biggest soccer feast in 2009, its leaders hailed the award as a milestone on the road to joining the European mainstream.

A delighted Yulia Tymoshenko, then prime minister, told her compatriots her government had scraped together “every kopeck” to make the dream possible.

Her jubilant tone foresaw the former Soviet republic turning a confident, smiling face to the world in the month-long Euro-2012 soccer tournament which it will co-host with Poland, its cheer-leader in Europe.

That was in December 2009.

Now, with the first games to be played in Ukraine on June 9, Tymoshenko lies in prison on hunger strike, nursing bruises after what she said was a beating by prison guards. Images of her show her trademark peasant braids lying in a forlorn tress across her shoulder.

Western leaders, some of whose national teams will compete in Euro-2012, have reacted with horror.

Led by Germany, leaders of several European Union countries have called off scheduled visits to Ukraine in protest at the treatment meted out by President Viktor Yanukovich’s leadership.

KIEV, May 2 (Reuters) – Andriy Shevchenko is not sure if he will make a final appearance for co-hosts Ukraine at Euro 2012, but feels certain that, even without his inspiration, a young Ukrainian team can spring a surprise.

The former AC Milan and Chelsea striker, a huge name in Ukrainian soccer for more than a decade, will quit the national side after the tournament, just three months before he turns 36.

Though he has been fighting for fitness, to claim a regular place in the Dynamo Kiev team, he feels he can represent Ukraine one last time at Europe’s soccer feast.

With or without him, Ukraine cannot be written off, he says, even though they are drawn against heavyweights England and France, as well as Sweden, in Group D.

“We have a young team with potential. A lot will depend on how the young players will deal with the psychological factor,” Shevchenko told Reuters in an interview at Dynamo’s Koncha Zaspa training ground.

“There will be special pressure on them. If they can handle this, we have a good chance of getting through the group.

“The strongest part of our game is a quick switch from defence to attack. We have got a lot of fast players.

KIEV (Reuters) – Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, has been forced to scrap plans to build a glitzy business centre at a historic tourist site in Kiev after a public outcry in which he was accused of “spitting on the soul” of the capital.

Protests by several hundred people brought a rare dose of bad publicity for the 45-year-old steel and coal tycoon who normally shuns the public limelight but is one of the most influential political players in the ex-Soviet republic.

Several hundred protesters, alerted by the social networking site Facebook, turned out to rally on Wednesday night against plans by the billionaire’s System Capital Management (SCM) company to build a multi-storey business centre on “Andriyivsky Descent”, a picturesque cobbled street and one of Ukraine’s best-known tourist spots.

But the protests came too late to stop bulldozers from destroying at least one 19th century building and wrecking another built 40 years ago in mock 19th century style, cultural officials said.

Chanting “(Put) Akhmetov down a mine shaft !” and “Get Akhmetov out of town”, several protesters dumped building material near SCM headquarters to signify their disgust.

“They have come here and brutally turned things into a pig-sty,” said Olexander Serhiyenko, a member of a Kiev civic organisation. “They have spat on the soul of Kiev with their ‘Andriyivsky Plaza’”, he said.

“The ESTA company (a subsidiary of SCM), having examined the opinions of Kiev people, decided back in March to cancel the construction of the business centre,” said Akhmetov in a statement issued by his press service.