DHAKA: Russian president Vladimir Putin has ‘lost Ukraine for good’ with his move to annex Crimea, former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko said in her first live television appearance since returning to the country.

Tymoshenko, who spent three years in jail on what she said were politically motivated charges before being freed last month, appealed to fellow Ukrainians to be ready to fight in the event of a Russian invasion.

‘Putin has lost Ukraine forever after declaring war on us,’ said the leader of the 2004 pro-Western Orange Revolution as she appeared on a live talk show in her trademark blonde plaits.

‘Putin is Ukraine’s enemy number one who seized our land with weapons’, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1229 HRS, MAR 22, 2014