KHARKIV, March 21 – Sanctions may be imposed on Ukraine if it ignores an instruction of the European Court of Human Rights regarding the treatment of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in a hospital outside the Kachanivska Penal Colony (Kharkiv), according to Tymoshenko's defense lawyer, Serhiy Vlasenko.

"The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe may impose relevant sanctions for the non-fulfillment of the instruction of the European Court of Human Rights. This could be a rather wide range of judicial, economic, and political measures selected by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to influence the transgressing state," Vlasenko told reporters in Kharkiv.