The EU warned Ukraine Tuesday that a verdict against ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko risked having 'profound implications' in its bid to seal an accord with the bloc as Kiev came under fire for the trial.
"The EU is deeply disappointed with the verdict," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement. "The EU will reflect on its policies towards Ukraine."
As rights groups slammed the seven-year sentence against the opposition leader as a politically-motivated verdict delivered by a biased court, Ashton called for impartiality in a pending appeal.
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Ukraine must "ensure a fair, transparent and impartial process in any appeal in the case of Ms Tymoshenko and in the other trials related to members of the former government."
In Washington key US senators called the ruling "an alarming new low".
"The Ukrainian government under President (Viktor) Yanukovych has reached an alarming new low in the deterioration of democracy and rule of law," said a joint statement by senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman.
The United States and Europe must "make clear" to Ukraine it will not be embraced by the West "so long as it violates the values of freedom, political pluralism, and the rule of law".
UN chief Ban Ki-moon "expects the judicial proceedings currently still ongoing to be conducted in a fair and impartial manner", his spokeswoman Vannina Maestracci said.
Ukraine's neighbour and current EU president Poland, which supports Kiev's European aspirations said "Ukraine's image as a country that is undertaking a fundamental pro-European transformation has been tarnished".
"Further proceedings will demonstrate whether or not Ukraine is moving towards or drifting away from the European integration -- the goal its leaders declared to pursue and Ukrainian society keenly supports," the Polish foreign ministry said in a statement.
Amnesty International said the conduct of the three-month abuse of power trial "casts doubts over the independence of the judiciary" and dubbed the prosecution of the Orange Revolution leader as "politically motivated".
"In a democracy, judgement about political decisions should be left to the parliament and to voters, not to courts," said Council of Europe secretary general Thorbjoern Jagland.
In her statement, Ashton warned Ukraine that the handling of upcoming cases or any breach of the rule of law "risks having profound implications for the EU-Ukraine bilateral relationship, including for the conclusion of the association agreement."
Ukraine has been negotiating an association accord with the 27-nation bloc it hoped would be signed off in December.
In Moscow, the Russian foreign ministry said there was "a clear anti-Russian subtext to this entire story".
"In essence, Y.V. Tymoshenko was put on trial for a current and binding agreement between Gazprom and Naftogaz Ukraine that was never annulled by anyone," it noted.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he was bewildered by the seven-year sentence handed to Tymoshenko, warning that it was "dangerous and counterproductive" to question the gas agreement with Russia that earned her the sentence.
And Ukrainian boxing star Vitali Klitschko called the sentence an act of "political hara-kiri" which would harm Kiev's EU bid.
Lithuania, the current chair of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) in Europe, said that "while countries have a duty to uphold the rule of law, they must do so in a way that avoids the selective application of justice".
EU officials had warned for weeks that the trial could jeopardise Yanukovych's dreams of EU integration.
"Political show-trials have no place in our Europe," said Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt.
The association agreement includes a free-trade deal between the country of 46 million and the European Union's 500-million people and is seen as a first step for the former Soviet state to reach its goal of joining the bloc.
As a judge in Kiev handed down his sentence against Tymoshenko, European parliamentarians meeting Ukraine Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko in Brussels said the country was sliding backwards.
"In any democracy there would've been a political inquiry, not a criminal trial" over the abuse of power allegations levelled at Tymoshenko, said German socialist MEP Martin Schulz.
Gryshchenko had little explanation to offer as MEPs grilling him over the trial accused his government of "systematic retaliation" against opponents.
Tymoshenko was sentenced over a 2009 gas deal with Russia on the grounds it caused heavy losses for Ukraine and was criminally motivated.
At talks Monday in Luxembourg, foreign ministers from the 27-nation bloc agreed to continue technical negotiations over the trade and accession agreement with Ukraine but warned that the Tymoshenko trial could hold up a final political agreement.
