KIEV, Aug. 9 – The U.S. issued its second statement over the past three days urging the Ukrainian government to consider immediately releasing imprisoned former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, citing signs of “politically motivated prosecution.”

The statement comes after a judge on Monday declined to release Tymoshenko, while reports indicate the authorities have been training massive police forces in anticipation of clashes with protesters.

“The United States wishes to reiterate its concerns over Friday’s arrest,” Mark Toner, deputy spokesman for the U.S. Department of State, said in the statement late Monday. The arrest “raises questions about the application of the rule of law in Ukraine and continues to contribute to the appearance of politically motivated prosecutions by the government.”

U.S. Senator Richard Lugar also made statement on Monday, expressing concerns that the arrest of Tymoshenko may distract Ukraine from “difficult work ahead in its efforts to join the European Union.”

“It is time for Ukrainians to leave past political disagreements behind them and world together to build their future in Europe,” Lugar said.

The comments were made after clashes between about one thousand Tymoshenko’s supporters and 2,000 riot police forces in Kiev on Monday had led to a brief shutdown of Kiev’s main street in downtown.

The dominant police fore has managed to push the protesters from street lanes to sidewalk, resuming the traffic, but the clash shows the extent to which the authorities are ready to go in confrontation with protesters.

Arseniy Yatseniuk, Ukraine’s second most popular opposition leader after Tymoshenko, on Tuesday accused the authorities of secret training of thousands of riot police troops in the Zhytomyr region, signaling the government may be preparing for more serious clashes.

Yatseniuk urged Interior Minister Anatoliy Mohyliov to disclose the purpose of the training and the number of troops involved.

“Are the measures in progress to prepare the units for crack down on the protesters,” Yatseniuk’s Front of Changes party said in a statement. “The troops themselves worry that they will be thrown against the people.”

The training is allegedly conducted at the order of Serhiy Popkov, a deputy interior minister who had allegedly ordered riot police troops to attack protesters during the Orange Revolution in November 2004. His order has been eventually aborted due to alleged involvement of security service, while the troops had been already on the march towards Kiev.

The reports of the alleged massive training may be a bad news for those Tymoshenko’s supporters that have stayed on 24-hour watch at the protest camp erected near the Pecherskiy district court in Kiev that holds the Tymoshenko trial.

Oleksandr Turchynov, the No. 2 in the Tymoshneko party and how is in charge of the camp, said they expect an attack by police anytime.

“The criminal power can act only through criminal ways, so anytime during the night as we understand they can attack the camp without any legal reasons,” Turchynov said.

President Viktor Yanukovych has been vacationing at his residence in Crimea, and has not made any comment yet on the Tymoshenko’s arrest.

Meanwhile, Iryna Akimova, Yanukovych’s chief economic advisor, said Tuesday that there was little concern that the Tymoshenko arrest may delay Ukraine’s political and free trade agreement with the EU.

“I think that no political reasons will be able to disrupt such long way of negotiations that Ukraine has already conversed jointly with the EU,” Akimova said.

Yanukovych is expected to travel to Brussels on Oct. 20 for talks with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in hopes of signing the agreement at Ukraine-EU summit in December. (tl/ez)