© Getty ImagesMagnetism: The freed Yulia Tymoshenko addresses the crowds in Kiev on Saturday just hours after she was released from prison following a vote in the Ukrainian parliament
Her angelic beauty and two-year detention in jail has attracted worldwide sympathy.
On Saturday, she was released following the overthrow of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in a dramatic coup.
Later that night, Tymoshenko, who has been suffering severe back pain, appeared in a wheelchair in Kiev's Independence Square, where she made a passionate speech to the 50,000-strong crowd. She called them 'heroes' who had removed a 'cancer' from the country. She also indicated she would run for president in elections in May.
But the prospect of her political comeback makes me fear for the future of the increasingly unstable and volatile Ukraine.
Mrs Tymoshenko's immaculate blonde tresses and sometimes kittenish ways have led many macho politicians in the Ukraine - and abroad - to underestimate her. The truth is that her determination is terrifying. Nobody and nothing gets in her way.
When she needs to, she is prepared to use her undeniable sexual magnetism.
Illness: That night, Tymoshenko, who has been suffering severe back pain, appeared in a wheelchair as she addressed the 50,000-strong crowd in Independence Square
Pledge: The former Ukrainian prime minister told reporters as she left hospital that she believed the country's future lay with the EU
I have interviewed her many times. Her body language, eyes, coquettish tosses of the head and cooing tones are almost hypnotic. But she is also capable of explosive anger. I have seen her shriek and curse in terrifying eruptions of rage: the kitten turns into a tigress.
Many foreign leaders have been smitten by her. Georgia's mercurial former President Mikheil Saakashvili was said to have been charmed by her during a helicopter ride which attracted lurid speculation.
But when Russia attacked Georgia in 2008, Tymoshenko, who was at the time Ukraine's Prime Minister, proved only lukewarm in defence of her former bosom pal.
Appearance: Mrs Tymoshenko's immaculate blonde tresses and sometimes kittenish ways have led many macho politicians in the Ukraine ¿ and abroad ¿ to underestimate her
The West were ready to slap sanctions on Ukraine in order to get a jail break for a psychopathic thief, but doesn't think war crimes are a cause for sanctions!
She was close to the billionaire businessman and political adviser Boris Berezovsky, the lisping Machiavelli of the Kremlin who sought refuge in London when he fell out with the Putin regime. 'Yulia Tymoshenko is the only politician in all Ukraine who understands democracy,' he told me.
I was unconvinced, though. I had seen at first-hand her approach to politics.
Nobody would doubt her ability to campaign. Having become a billionaire in the energy industry, she can afford the best spin doctors and 'imidzhmeker' or image-makers.
And she is a stunning orator.
While giving stump speeches amid widespread (and all too justified) cynicism about politicians, she would open with a dramatic stunt. Falling to her knees and stretching her arms out to her audience, she would declaim: 'Forgive us! People of Ukraine, forgive us!'
She had emotional reunion with her daughter Yevgenia (right) as she arrived in the iconic square
She is also prone to irrational, often self-aggrandising flights of fancy. Like many in the former Soviet Union, she believes in horoscopes and psychics.
According to Dmitry Vydrin, formerly a close adviser, she thinks she is the reincarnation of Eva Peron, the late Argentine leader immortalised by Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita.
Certainly, her public appearances seem to recreate the appearance and mannerisms of the Argentine strongwoman. Another worry is the overlap between her business and political interests.
Stoney-faced: She made a colossal and rapid fortune in a business that required nerves of steel and in an era when commercial disputes were settled by the crudest of means
Next came a stint bartering computers and household gadgets. She won large government contracts and developed a sideline in exchanging surplus weapons from Ukraine's military arsenal for Russian fuel.
She made a colossal and rapid fortune in a business that required nerves of steel and in an era when commercial disputes were settled by the crudest of means.
Tributes: People lay flowers and lit candles at one of the barricades heading to Independence Square, the epicenter of the country's recent unrest last week
FILE PHOTO: A Maidan self-defence activist stand on an armored vehicle in central Kiev
Destruction and debris: One activist holds flowers and a bar of chocolate as he guards one of the barricades at the focal point of the country's violence
For two lucrative years her company United Energy Systems controlled Ukraine's entire gas imports from Russia. In the former Soviet Union, gas traders could make colossal profits. With the right connections, gas could be acquired cheaply - and sold at a juicy premium.
Ukraine's heavy industry and hard winters mean gas is consumed in vast amounts. Mrs Tymoshenko became known as the 'gas princess'. Ukrainians did not mean that as a compliment.
She served as energy minister in the government of Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko. During that two-year period, £120 billion, according to the United Nations, was looted from Ukraine. Mr Lazarenko is now serving a nine-year prison sentence in America for money-laundering, wire fraud and extortion.
According to court documents, Mr Lazarenko allocated Mrs Tymoshenko concessions which gave her a third of Ukraine's gas industry - and about a fifth of its GDP.
Aftermath: Thousands of people gathered for prayers after the chaotic, violent week which saw the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych
Her blonde hair became legendary. Her appearance seemed to be designed to evoke the image of a fairytale princess in Ukrainian folklore. In 2005, she was appointed Prime Minister. But her authoritarian ways and erratic policy-making won few friends.
Ukraine desperately needed solid reforms, of the kind undertaken by successful post-communist countries such as Estonia and Poland.
These countries have built up the institutions needed for a market economy to function properly. They are now well-regarded members of the European Union and Nato. However, Ukraine - misruled by its political class ever since it gained independence in 1991 - is not even in the waiting room.
For her part, Mrs Tymoshenko showed no sign of grasping the size of the reforms needed, or how to begin implementing them.
Her blonde hair became legendary. Her appearance seemed to be designed to evoke the image of a fairytale princess in Ukrainian folklore. In 2005, she was appointed Prime Minister.
He took a swift revenge. Mrs Tymoshenko was tried and sentenced on flimsy-sounding fraud and tax charges. Despite widespread international pressure - and mounting evidence of serious medical problems - the authorities refused to release her.
And the bruising world of Ukrainian politics has taken its toll on her personal life. Her husband Oleksandr fled the country in 2012 after being arrested on charges of embezzlement and forging customs documents. He has found refuge in the Czech Republic.
Their only daughter, the equally formidable Eugenia, who studied at the London School of Economics, has proved her mother's most loyal supporter, pleading her case while she was imprisoned and standing by her side in Independence Square after her release on Saturday night.
Carnage: Tension between riot police and protestors reached deadly levels last week as the anti-government demonstrator's camp was targeted
Tension: Ukrainian flags hung from the arms of statues while plumes of smoke billowed out over the square
The most prominent politician in the opposition is the former world boxing champion, Vitaly Klitschko. Few doubt the giant sportsman's integrity and courage. But he is a political novice. Another potential leader, Arseniy Yatseniuk, is a polished performer and political insider. But many see him as too closely tied to the old system.
The supremely self-confident Mrs Tymoshenko may bide her time for now, but in the long run she is unlikely to see either of them as unbeatable opponents. She has plenty of enemies, but she can deal with them. Even the tycoons who have long determined the course of Ukrainian politics quail before her.
As Dmitry Vydrin - a friend who she has ostracised - told the American New Republic magazine: 'You can't stop her in any normal political way. You can't beat her on TV, you can't out-argue her . . . If she had more time on earth, she'd become president of the Ukraine, president of the EU, president of the U.S.'
If the gas princess can learn from her mistakes, she may yet stage a truly triumphant comeback and give her country the leadership it needs.
But everything I know about her self-interest, her hunger for power and her contempt for her people makes me doubt it.
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