Former Ukraine prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko on trial and in jail

Yevgenia Carr is the beautiful daughter of former Ukraine prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko. 

Tymoshenko, part of the countries 2004 Orange Revolution, now forms the opposition to current leader Viktor Yanukovych.

Former prime minister Tymoshenko, who amassed a personal fortune from the oil business during the 1990s, was jailed last month for contempt of court – a move which has caused major controversy in Ukraine.

She had been arrested on charges of "abuse of power", referring to a gas deal she signed in 2009 with Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin.

The prosecutor does not accuse Tymoshenko – famous for her hair style – of corruption or embezzlement of funds.

The European Union and the United States have called her arrest “political persecution of opposition leader.”

Now, apart from Ukraine holding the European Football Championships (with Poland) in 2012, events in Ukraine have little interest to my own country, Britain.

However, by a strange twist of fate there is a link between us Brits and the former prime minister of Ukraine. It comes in the shape of Sean Carr a Leeds-born market trader who married Tymoshenko’s daughter in 2005.

Carr is also the lead singer in a traditional rock band called Death Valley Screamers which has enjoyed some success in Ukraine.

It’s a bizarre tale, ultimately thrusting Carr and his wife Yevgenia to a level of celebrity something akin to the Posh and Becks of Ukraine (though he is neither posh or Becks).

It’s almost a modern social statement how facts like these lead to our awareness of political issues. My admiration for the city of Kiev is huge but corruption and injustice is still a major problem in Ukraine.

It’s only through these spurious links that people in Britain or the Western world are aware of issues of corruption and social injustice. Tymoshenko’s imprisonment is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the problems in Ukraine.

Hopefully Tymoshenko will be released soon. Thanks to her family connections, many people in Britain are on her side.

I went to Kiev in 2008 to photograph Carr and his band. I also photographed Yevgenia Carr.

Kiev conquered

Lunch in Kiev, dinner in Riga, supper in Hemel Hemsptead. If that isn’t a perfect day, then a perfect day doesn’t exist.

Far off the beaten track, it’s one of those destinations few in Britain have been lucky enough to reach. But if you put in the effort, Hemel Hempstead is worth it.

But let’s deal with Kiev. It’s the most difficult city I’ve been to in terms of getting around and communicating. But once you’ve found a map, got your bearings and conquered the metro the fear disappears and the beauty of this place unveils itself.

Kiev has more churches than the Vatican, more street boozing than Manchester on UEFA Cup Final night, more beautiful women than a Paris fashion show.

The churches are part of its Christian history, the boozing on Independence Square at night is what they do and the beautiful girls are just a happy coincidence.

And with no direct flights to Kiev from Britain, you feel like you’re visiting an unspoilt wonderland that the west has been unable to bastardise through stag do’s and budget flights.

It’s like seeing communism firsthand without the communism actually being there any more. Get yourself to Kiev (but don’t tell anybody in case they ruin it).

NOTE: My trip to Kiev was for my book Outsiders. I interviewed and photographed Sean Carr and Mick Lake from the band Death Valley Screamers, two guys from Leeds who now live in Kiev, the city where they relaunched their band with life-changing success.

I flew from Stansted via Riga. I spent two hours in Riga on my way back. The Latvian girls just aren't as pretty.