KIEV, Jan. 31 – Ukrainian authorities on Monday again denied permission for opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko to visit Brussels later this week for high-level meetings with European Union leaders.

The move, which means Tymoshenko won’t be able to attend the scheduled meetings, may strengthen criticism in Europe that President Viktor Yanukovych has been increasingly resorting to authoritarian methods to crush opposition to his rule.

European People’s Party leaders Wilfried Martens and Antonio Lopez-Isturiz earlier invited Tymoshenko to visit Brussels between January 31 and February 4. Tymoshenko was also expected to meet Jerzy Buzek, the president of the European Parliament, in Brussels on February 2.

The Prosecutor General’s Office, in a statement on Monday, said the permission had been denied because of intelligence allegedly indicating that Tymoshenko wants to “use the trip in order to leave Ukraine and to avoid prosecution.”

The developments come two weeks after one of Tymoshenko’s key allies, former Economy Minister Bohdan Danylyshyn, was granted political asylum in the Czech Republic, underscoring concerns in Europe over state of democracy in Ukraine.

“By banning Tymoshenko’s trip to Brussels Yanukovych and the Prosecutor General’s Office, which he controls, have again underscored they are building the authoritarian regime in Ukraine,” Hryhoriy Nemyria, a deputy head of Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna party, said in a statement.

Tymoshenko was planning to use the trip to attract international attention to the increasing pressure on opposition groups and serious problems with democracy in Ukraine.

At least four senior officials from the former government led by Tymoshenko over the past six months have been put behind bars over the past six months and are now awaiting trial for alleged abuse of power.

The overall number of criminal investigations against opposition figures reached several dozens since Yanukovych had become the president in February 2010 by defeating his chief opponent Tymoshenko.

The U.S. government specifically warned Ukraine last month that the latest investigations against opposition figures in Ukraine may be politically motivated.

“I have no doubts that the EU, respective institutions and European politicians will condemn this move by Yanukovych that is putting Ukraine further from the European perspective,” Nemyria said. “The order a-la Yanukovych has nothing to do with European democracy.”

Tymoshenko is under investigation for alleged abuse of power when she was prime minister in 2009, a charge that she has denied. She said the investigation is politically motivated.

Because of the ongoing investigation, Tymoshenko’s ability to travel is restricted by prosecutors, which means she needs to get permission if she wants to leave the city of Kiev.

The authorities denied the same request last week by arguing that the invitations from the European leaders had been written in English. Tymoshenko re-submitted the request after translating the invitations in Ukrainian.

The pressure on Tymoshenko intensified late last year after she had repeatedly traveled to Brussels to criticize Yanukovych on international arena.

After one such trip last year, an anonymous caller phoned Tymoshenko and told her that she will “cough up blood” unless she stops criticizing Yanukovych internationally.

SBU security service was not able to track down the phone caller, and suggested that the reported phone call might have been a fake. (tl/ez)