Ukraine’s jailed ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko lay down on the floor of her hospital ward for more than 40 hours in protest over the authorities’ refusal to allow opposition allies to visit her, her lawyer said yesterday.

“From Friday at 4.30pm to Sunday around 1pm Yulia Volodymyrivna (Tymoshenko) remained lying in the lobby of her ward” on the floor, lawyer Oleksandr Plakhotniuk told journalists after visiting her in a state hospital in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

“That was my silent cry,” Tymoshenko, who has been treated for debilitating back pains since May, said in a statement published by her press service.

“She didn’t eat all that time and the bathroom was closed to force her to get up,” Plakhotniuk added, noting that Tymoshenko’s health “has seriously deteriorated” since the protest action.

The prison service published a video on Saturday in which Tymoshenko is shown repeatedly banging on a closed door, demanding to see supporters who she says are waiting for her, but the guard insists are not.

The prison service of Ukraine on Friday rejected the request of three opposition members to visit Tymoshenko, but finally allowed it on Sunday “as an exception”.

Tymoshenko, 51, was jailed for seven years in October last year on abuse of power charges that she claimed were part of a vendetta against her and her former government team by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.