Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has tested positive for the coronavirus and is in serious condition with a fever, her party's spokeswoman said on August 23.
Marina Soroka, a spokeswoman for the Fatherland Party, confirmed that the 59-year-old Tymoshenko is ill, saying on Facebook, “Yes, unfortunately, it’s correct,” adding that she is "fighting" with a temperature of 39 degrees. She did not say whether Tymoshenko had been hospitalized.
Tymoshenko is the first high-profile Ukrainian politician known to have contracted COVID-19.
Ukraine experienced a sharp rise in coronavirus infections this week. On August 22 the country reported a 24-hour total of 2,328 new cases, bringing the total since the pandemic began to 107,379, including 2,313 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
Tymoshenko rose to prominence as co-leader of Ukraine's Orange Revolution in 2004 amid widespread protests against corruption and election rigging.
Tymoshenko ran for president in 2010 and lost to Russian-backed Viktor Yanukovych and was imprisoned from 2011 to 2014 on abuse-of-office charges that the international community widely condemned as politically motivated.
She was freed from prison in early 2014 after Yanukovych was toppled in a popular uprising that put Ukraine on a path toward closer ties with the European Union and the United States.
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Tymoshenko Tests Positive For Coronavirus

Editors' Picks
Top Trending
1
In Ukraine's Donbas, Intensifying Russian Offensives -- An Omen Of Things To Come?
2Amid Worries Over Russian Forces In Belarus, Former Security Officer Says Belarusian Conscripts Won't Fight
3Punished By Western Sanctions, Russia's Airlines Are Showing More Cracks And More Problems
4Interview: Writer Vladimir Sorokin Says Russia's Unresolved Historical Traumas Have Now 'Taken The Form Of War'
5'They Will Send The Army To Ukraine': Bulgarian Social Media Flooded With Rumors Of Military Draft
6Denounced By Her Classmates, Anti-War Russian Teen Faces A Long Prison Term
7Ukraine Will Hold Bakhmut, Zelenskiy Vows, Amid Warnings About New Offensive In The East
8Biden To Speak With Zelenskiy As Ukraine's Calls For Fighter Jets Grow Louder
9Wider Europe Briefing: Sending Leopards To Ukraine Is About More Than Tanks; Plus, Hungary's Habit Of Horse-Trading
10The Week In Russia: Stalingrad And A 'Stupid, Criminal War'
Subscribe