KIEV: Ukraine's former president Petro Poroshenko was released from hospital on Monday after more than a week of emergency treatment for double pneumonia caused by Covid-19, his party said.

Poroshenko was discharged from hospital "as his health condition has improved," his political party European Solidarity said on Facebook.

He had been hospitalised with double pneumonia on October 3, days after he tested positive for Covid-19.

Poroshenko, 55, currently a member of the Ukrainian parliament, suffers from diabetes which is associated with an increased risk of developing complications from the coronavirus.

He was elected president in 2014 after an uprising ousted pro-Moscow leader Viktor Yanukovych but had to deal with Russia's annexation of Crimea and the conflict with Moscow-backed separatists in the east of the country.

In 2019 he was easily beaten in presidential elections by Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian with no previous political experience.

Ukraine, one of Europe's poorest countries with a population of some 40 million, has reported more than 265,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 5,000 fatalities.

Former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Zelensky's wife Olena Zelenska both contracted the virus but have recovered.