Former Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko Tests Positive For COVID-19

JAKARTA - Former Prime Minister (PM) of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, August 23. A spokesman for his party said the former PM had fever symptoms earlier.

The spokesman even said Tymoshenko's condition was serious now. "His condition is taken seriously, the temperature is up to 39 (Celsius)," the party spokesman said.

However, the party spokesman refused to give further details regarding the handling and location of Tymoshenko's quarantine. While it is known that the number of COVID-19 transmission in Ukraine has increased sharply in the past week. In fact, the COVID-19 pandemic has put the Ukrainian Parliament on holiday since mid-July.

The leader of the #Batkivshchyna party Yulia #Tymoshenko was found to have a #coronavirus. Several members of her family are also ill. 1987 new # covid19 cases were confirmed in #Ukraine in the last 24 hrs. 1990 cases suspected # covid_19 pic.twitter.com/c0i3fzL7oz

- Sergii Kharchenko (@ukrreporter) August 23, 2020

Previously, Tymoshenko became popular for his role as deputy leader of the Ukrainan Orange Revolution in 2004. At that time, he was a staunch supporter of Vikroe Yushchenko who later became President of Ukraine.

For his support, Tymoshenko became PM twice under Yushchenko's government. But then the two fell out with each other after chronic political turmoil hit Ukraine.

In 2010 Tymoshenko tried his luck running as a presidential candidate. Unfortunately, he lost the vote to Viktor Yanukovich, who was supported by Russia. His defeat was sad. This is because Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison for abuse of office while serving as prime minister.

In the end, Tymoshenko was released from prison in early 2014 after Yanukovich was ousted in a massive uprising in Ukraine. That was what made Ukraine, which initially leaned towards Russia, changed course to be closer to the European Union and the United States.

So far Ukraine has confirmed 106,757 cases of COVID-19 transmission. Among them, there were 2,293 cases died.