KIEV, May 3 – European leaders threatened to boycott the Euro 2012 soccer tournament in Ukraine in June unless the authorities free jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko to allow her proper medical treatment.

On Sunday, Angela Merkel said that she and her cabinet would not attend any games played in Ukraine, which is co-hosting the tournament with Poland, unless the human rights situation under President Viktor Yanukovych improved.

On Monday, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, and Viviane Reding, the commissioner for justice, said they would not be traveling to Ukraine either. The Czech president, Vaclav Klaus, announced he was canceling a visit to Yalta, while Germany's president, Joachim Gauck, called off a trip to the same central European leaders' summit last week.

A European commission spokeswoman said that "as things stand" Barroso had "no intention of going" to Euro 2012. She described Tymoshenko's predicament as "a very, very serious situation.”

“It gives rise to very serious concern," she added.

Tymoshenko, the former prime minister, was jailed for seven years in October after what her supporters say was a politically motivated show trial. She has been on hunger strike since April 20. On Friday, photos appeared showing bruises on her body. Tymoshenko claims prison guards assaulted her and punched her in the stomach. Ukrainian prosecutors say her injuries were self-inflicted.

Tymoshenko is currently being held in Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine. The city is the venue for Germany's first group stage match against the Netherlands on June 13. On Monday, after seeing the photographs of Tymoshenko's bruises, Sweden's foreign ministry summoned the Ukrainian ambassador and demanded an explanation.

The criticism from Europe has provoked a sharp response from Kiev. On Sunday, foreign ministry press spokesman Oleh Voloshin accused Berlin of cold-war thinking. Other officials suggested that the Germans should refrain from meddling in Ukraine's internal affairs.
"I wouldn't like to think that the statesmen of Germany are capable of reanimating the methods of the cold war," Voloshin said, adding he hoped the threat of a boycott was a "newspaper canard".

Voloshin told the Guardian in an email that Ukraine was being unfairly punished. "Our position is very simple. Euro 2012 is about football not politics. It's impossible to solve any political issues through boycotting sporting events."

In an apparent swipe at Germany's cozy relationship with Russia, Voloshin said that "other countries in the region" allegedly had more problems with democracy than Ukraine, but that German politicians "kept mum" whenever they staged large sporting events.

The EU has frozen conclusion of an association agreement between Brussels and Kiev because of Yanukovych's policies. Austria is also boycotting the summit of regional leaders in the Crimean resort of Yalta, with Baltic states expected to follow suit.

Germany had been negotiating quietly for weeks with the Yanukovych government, seeking to get Tymoshenko to a Berlin clinic for medical treatment. German doctors who have been allowed to treat her say she is suffering from a herniated spinal disc. (nr/gd/ez)