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The future of Poland’s eastern neighbor, Ukraine, is now in focus after Polish President Bronisław Komorowski visited the country and warned that its European aspirations depended on the transparency of the October 28 parliamentary election and the fate of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko.

“Poland has consistently and constantly expressed the position that carrying out fair elections in Ukraine, regardless of their outcome, should open the way for further steps towards the goal of signing and ratifying the association agreement between the EU and Ukraine,” Mr Komorowski told reporters after his meeting with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

Speaking in Warsaw while President Komorowski was in Kiev, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski was even more forthright. “Any doubt whatsoever regarding the conduct of October’s parliamentary elections in Ukraine will bury the country’s European aspirations,” Mr Sikorski said.

Meanwhile, President Komorowski admitted that Ms Tymoshenko’s imprisonment is a “serious and significant obstacle on the path of Ukraine getting closer to the EU.”

Although Mr Yanukovych has vowed he is committed to his country’s closer integration with the EU, Kiev’s ties with Brussels have been strained since Ms Tymoshenko, the Ukrainian president’s main political opponent, was sentenced to seven years in prison last October for an abuse of office charge related to a 2009 gas deal with Russia, which she negotiated as then-prime minister.

The court agreed with the Ukrainian government’s claim that the deal had led to exorbitant prices for the country’s gas supplies from Russia.

Brussels claims Ms Tymoshenko’s conviction was politically motivated, while President Yanukovych maintains that she was tried by an independent court.

EU-Ukraine negotiations have since stalled, although Mr Yanukovych has said he ex-pects work on an Association Agreement to resume after the October 28 vote.

While in Kiev, Mr Komorowski said Ukraine must decide whether it wants to align itself with the EU or join a Russian-led customs union.

“It is impossible to implement those two scenarios at the same time. A choice has to be made,” he said.