The Polish president Bronislaw Komorowski told his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych in Kyiv on Thursday that Poland will continue to support Ukraine’s European integration adding that the country’s chance of joining the EU depend on transparency of October’s parliamentary election and fate of jailed opposition leader and former PM Yulia Tymoshenko.

“Poland can help Ukraine by persuading the Western world that your country should be given a chance [to join EU]," Komorowski told reporters after meeting Yanukovych on a two-day visit to Ukraine.

President Komorowski also said that Kiev has to make a choice whether to be closer to Moscow or to Brussels.

"You have to make a choice [between a Russia-led customs union and the EU], and it is up to Ukraine to make this choice. The simultaneous or parallel implementation of the two scenarios is impossible," Komorowski said at a news conference with Yanukovych.

President Yanukovych said that European integration is his top foreign policy priority and that Ukrainian authorities will make sure that October election is transparent and fair.

Komorowski also pointed to the fact that Tymoshenko case hinders Ukraine's EU integration.

"The Tymoshenko case is an internal matter of Ukraine, but at the same time this case is a serious, significant obstacle on the path of Ukraine getting closer to the EU," he said.
Tymoshenko, the country's top opposition leader, was sentenced to seven years in prison last October on abuse-of-office charge related to a 2009 gas deal with Russia that she had negotiated as prime minister.

The West has condemned the case as politically motivated and expressed concerns about the fairness of the election given Tymoshenko's inability to run.