Boycott of Ukraine During Euro 2012 Carries Risks It's an ethical dilemma that has Western leaders in a bind: to boycott or not to boycott Ukraine-hosted matches in the European soccer championship over the alleged abuse of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko? When Tymoshenko launched a hunger strike last month after saying she was beaten by prison officials, several European leaders vowed to boycott Ukraine during Euro 2012 in protest, with even German Chancellor Angela Merkel threatening to stay away. But many warn that to shun Ukraine could do more harm than good. Leaders, sports officials and even some rights activists argue that using Europe's most prestigious sporting event to punish Ukraine is hardly likely to win Tymoshenko's release. On the other hand, it could alienate Ukraine further from the West, demoralize its people and create a troubling sporting precedent. For instance, will countries now shunning Ukraine, which co-hosts the tournament with Poland, also be willing to take a hard line against economic giant Russia when it hosts the Sochi winter Olympics in 2014 and the World Cup in 2018? Russia, after all, also has political prisoners and a spotty human rights record. The United States led a boycott of about 50 countries against the 1980 Moscow Olympics over the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan - and that was widely seen as a flop that made no difference to the conflict. A supporter of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko holds a poster of her in front of a state-run hospital in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Wednesday May 9, 2012. Tymoshenko, Ukraine's imprisoned former prime minister, was moved Wednesday from jail to this hospital for treatment of a severe back condition under the supervision of a German doctor. The move was likely to allay at least some Western concerns over Tymoshenko's health and handling in prison. Top EU officials and some EU governments have vowed to boycott the European football championship matches co-hosted by Ukraine in June, and Ukraine had to cancel a regional cooperation summit this weekend after most heads of central and eastern European states canceled their visits over the Tymoshenko case. (AP Photo/dapd/ Alexey Furman) Close It's no surprise that Russia's Vladimir Putin, who returned to the presidency this week, says Tymoshenko's case and Euro 2012 should be kept separate. "One must not in any circumstances mix politics, business and other questions of this sort with sports," Putin said last week. A leading Polish analyst, Marcin Zaborowski, argues that talk of boycotting Ukraine "opens up a broader question about whether international sports events should just be for democratic nations." "If you do that, then you remove an important element in international relations," said Zaborowski, director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs. He argued that major sporting events - including soccer matches between political foes like Turkey and Armenia, and the U.S. and Iran - have helped ease tensions by giving politicians, athletes and fans a chance to interact in a nonpolitical space. Sports can also be a morale booster for people living in oppressive systems, Zaborowski said. During the Cold War, for instance, participation in Olympic games and other international competitions lifted the spirits and pride of Eastern Europeans by giving them a stage on which their athletes could excel. Should regular Ukrainians, who are already struggling with poverty and corruption, also have their party ruined due to this political controversy? These issues are sparking a great deal of debate in co-host Poland, Ukraine's neighbor to the West. The tournament opens June 8 in Warsaw with a Poland-Greece match and ends in Kiev on July 1, with matches in between in four Polish and four Ukrainian cities. Poland's leading opposition leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of the right-wing Law and Justice party, is joining some Western Europeans in calling for Poland to boycott Ukraine, arguing that Tymoshenko's imprisonment is a clear attempt by President Viktor Yanukovych and his allies "to eliminate the opposition leader from public life." "Such a situation cannot be tolerated" by the EU, Kaczynski said.