Ms Tymoshenko sees "President Putin’s recent phone-call to President Obama to seek renewed diplomatic talks" as a chilling reminder of the "infamous Yalta Conference in 1945", during which "Joseph Stalin made Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt complicit in a division of Europe".

She warns against "Putin's sham federalism", which would divide Ukraine rather than to unite it, urging the West to be aware of supporting the "Kremlin-designed federal constitution", which would create "a dozen Crimeas" in Ukraine, allowing Russia to "devour them more easily later".

It is undeniable that a "federal sytem" would strengthen the Kremlin's influence on the ethnic Russians in Ukraine, who, having more autonomy, could veto "the country’s European future". These autonomous regions should also serve as buffer zones between Russia and Western Europe. Just like Stalin, determined to ensure that the post-war settlement in Europe should not be a threat to the Soviet Union, Putin is now in a strong position and he uses it. On the other hand, he can't live for ever and Ukraine will outlive Putin. Nobody can predict, how the post-Putin Russia will be like. There is hope that Russia might moved forward, once he is gone.

Ms Tymoshenko is right that "Ukraine’s constitutional structure is for Ukraine’s citizens alone to decide. Russia can have no say in it – and nor should other countries, however helpful they wish to be". But does she believe she is the right person to save Ukraine out of this political quagmire?

Her fiery rhetoric, which made her an icon of the 2004 Orange Revolution and a talisman for Ukraine's opposition is palpable in this commentary. She and her ally Viktor Yushchenko packed the streets of Ukraine in protest at a rigged election that made Viktor Yanukovych the winner. The Supreme Court ruled in their favour, and the Orange alliance took power on a firmly pro-Western platform. No sooner had they taken over, with Tymoshenko as prime minister and Yushchenko as president, their relationship turned sour. Political paralysis prevented any effective handling of the problems that Ukraine faced.

Tymoshenko's supporters have always seen her as a glamorous revolutionary challenging a corrupt, macho political elite. Her stinging attacks on the oligarchs who prospered under the pre-Orange Revolution rule of Leonid Kuchma boosted her popularity among Ukrainians frustrated by economic stagnation and corruption. Yet she herself became very wealthy in the 1990s. Her company - the United Energy Systems of Ukraine - made her one of the richest people in Ukraine. Like many oligarchs, she moved into politics and served in Leonid Kuchma's government in 1999-2001. But she fell out with him. After being held in prison for a month on corruption charges, she made it her goal to unseat him, launching a campaign that led to the Orange Revolution. Ms Tymoshenko is said to be a highly controversial figure. Many ask whether her presidency would be a benefit for Ukraine, if it has to shrug off its past.

