VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO, the Ukrainian pro-Western opposition leader, moved a step closer to victory yesterday as Russia appeared to back plans for a new presidential election and eastern regions backpedalled on threats to secede if he won.
The emboldened opposition broke off talks with the Government, which it accuses of rigging a presidential poll on November 21 in favour of Viktor Yanukovych, the Prime Minister who has hitherto been backed by Moscow.
It also rejected out of hand Mr Yanukovych’s compromise offers to make Mr Yushchenko his Prime Minister if he became President, or to drop out of the race altogether if his rival also did.
“The election was rigged,” Mr Yushchenko said. “People are asking whether this country has a political elite capable of upholding a fair vote.”
His campaign chief, Oleksandr Zinchenko, later announced that the tens of thousands of protesters in central Kiev would resume their blockade of the government headquarters, effectively paralysing Mr Yanukovych.
Among those protesters, now in the ninth day of mass demonstrations, the mood was buoyant. “Yanukovych and [Leonid] Kuchma are history. They should go and retire in Russia,” said Andrei Konsarenko, 32, a sales manager in a publishing company.
Yesterday’s developments significantly bolstered Mr Yushchenko’s position as Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy chief, flew to Kiev to meet Leonid Kuchma, the outgoing President.
Today, the two men will join Boris Gryzlov, Russia’s parliament speaker, President Kwasniewski of Poland and President Adamkus of Lithuania for a second round of crisis talks. Mr Gryzlov gave warning that Ukraine “is heading towards a split or towards bloodshed”.
But President Putin, who initially recognised Mr Yanukovych’s victory and offered his congratulations, signalled that Moscow was giving ground in its stand-off with Washington over the election.
Mr Putin and Gerhard Schröder, the German Chancellor, said that they would respect the outcome of a new poll, a German government statement said, although the Kremlin made no mention of a fresh vote. Moscow has explicitly backed Mr Yanukovych, who advocates closer linguistic and commercial ties with Russia, while the West clearly favours Mr Yushchenko, a liberal who wants Ukraine to join the EU and Nato.
“Hopefully this issue will be solved quickly and the will of the people will be known,” President Bush said last night.
The crisis threatens to split Ukraine between the Russian-speaking, Orthodox and industrialised east, which backs Mr Yanukovych, and the Ukrainian-speaking, Catholic and agricultural west, which supports Mr Yushchenko. But the immediate risk of this receded after the eastern coalmining region of Donetsk, where Mr Yanukovych was once governor, said that it would not now hold a referendum on self-rule on Sunday. Another eastern region, Kharkiv, also retracted its threat to consider self-rule.
Mr Kuchma insisted that “we cannot accept the division of Ukraine” and the SBU, the security service which succeeded the KGB, said it had launched a criminal investigation into calls for autonomy from several Russian-speaking regions.
In parliament the speaker, Volodymyr Lytvyn, criticised “many state, regional and local officials in the east and south of the country for inciting separatism . . . and unconstitutional and illegal aspirations for independence and autonomy”.
In another show of strength, thousands of opposition protesters massed outside the parliament building after it failed to consider a vote of no-confidence in the Government.
Only 196 of the 410 MPs present supported the measure; 226 votes were needed.
Protesters tried to storm the building, and Mr Lytvyn adjourned the session until Wednesday. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court held a second day of hearings on an opposition appeal to overturn the election results and rejected a plea by Mr Yanukovich’s team for a two-day recess.
“The Supreme Court must not under any circumstances delay its examination of this matter,” the court chairman, Anatoly Yarema, told the session as it got under way. The court cannot rule on the overall results but can declare results invalid in individual precincts.
Mr Yushchenko’s lawyers have cited turnout of more than 100 per cent in parts of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and problems with voting lists and multiple voting with absentee ballots.
Whatever the court’s ruling, a new election now looks certain. It is not clear, however, whether Mr Kuchma is proposing to hold a new run-off between Mr Yushchenko and Mr Yanukovych, or to hold a completely new election. Nor is it clear whether he will agree to opposition demands for a new Central Election Commission to ensure a fair vote. Speculation is also mounting that Mr Kuchma and Mr Putin might not back Mr Yanu kovych in a new poll for fear that he would lose badly.
But the pressure is rising on all parties to prevent further damage to Ukraine’s economy. The central bank imposed limits on purchases of foreign currency yesterday in an effort to avert a banking crisis.
TRADE WITH EU
- Trade turnover was £5.2 billion in 2002
- In 2002 Ukraine's exports to the EU were £3 billion
- Ukraine has the largest agricultural area of any EU country. Ukrainian agricultural exports to the EU were worth £1.3 billion in 2002
- Pipelines bring oil from the Caspian to Europe through Ukrainian Black Sea ports and the Odessa-Brody pipeline link
TRADE WITH RUSSIA
- Trade turnover with Ukraine’s greatest trade partner was £6.3 billion in 2002
- Russia accounts for 20 per cent of Ukraine's exports and 40 per cent of imports
- Main exports to Russia are ferrous metal, dairy and chemical products and services
- Major Russian exports to Ukraine are transport, chemical products, oil and military technology
