PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of Poland's main opposition party, Law and Justice (PiS), has urged a boycott of matches held in Ukraine during the upcoming Euro 2012 soccer tournament, which is being co-hosted by Poland.

Similar statements have recently been heard across Europe, with European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also considering such a move in the wake of the alleged physical abuse of jailed former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

“Only a determined attitude can persuade the government in Kiev to change its policy,” Mr Kaczyński wrote in a statement on his party's website.

He said he thinks a boycott may not be sufficient on its own, Gazeta Wyborcza reported. “Therefore the responsible European bodies should prepare a scenario for taking away Ukraine's right to host the tournament, and transfer it to another country,” he stated.

Both President Bronisław Komorowski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk have, however, spoken against doing anything that could jeopardize the tournament.

Mr Tusk told journalists that Mr Kaczyński's statement amounts to an “own goal.”

He added that Ms Tymoshenko had requested that nothing should be done on her behalf which would reduce Ukraine's chances of further rapprochement with the West.

Ms Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison last October for abuse of office after a trial that many observers claimed to be politically motivated. She is now in a prison in the city of Kharkiv, one of the Euro 2012 venues. Her family says she is in poor health due to a hunger strike she is on, and that she is suffering from chronic back pain. However Ms Tymoshenko refuses treatment, saying she does not trust state-appointed doctors.

The opening match of the Euro 2012 tournament will be played in Warsaw on June 8.

Poland A.M.