Rival groups of demonstrators filled the streets of Kiev yesterday as Ukraine’s Orange Revolution threatened to unravel.

Thousands of supporters of Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian Prime Minister, massed in protest at the decision by the pro-Western President to dissolve Parliament. Viktor Yushchenko, who swept to power three years ago on a wave of popular support for his anti-Russian platform, acted to prevent his bitter political rival from draining his authority.

The move sparked a political crisis, bringing long-simmering tension into open confrontation between the two men who have spent recent months waging political guerrilla warfare.

Mr Yanukovych accused the President of making a “fatal mistake” and retaliated by insisting that Parliament would work on. Crisis talks between the two men yesterday failed to ease the growing tensions. The European Union and Russia expressed concern at the political turmoil and urged both sides to show restraint.

The widening divide between the authorities prompted Anatoly Grytsenko, the Defence Minister, to warn Cabinet colleagues that Ukraine’s military would take orders only from the President. Mr Grytsenko is one of only two Yushchenko supporters in the Government, and the rest of the Cabinet voted to reject the President’s order to dissolve Parliament.

Many protesters had been brought into the capital by bus and train from the Prime Minister’s power base in Ukraine’s regions, particularly the Russian-speaking industrial east. Hundreds pitched tents next to the Parliament, flying the blue and yellow flags of Mr Yanukovych’s Party of Regions. Organisers were planning a vigil to protect the parliament building against any attempt to dissolve it by force. Party officials promised to bring 15,000 people to Kiev from Donetsk, Mr Yanukovych’s electoral heartland, to join the protest today.

The scene carried echoes of the mass demonstrations that brought Mr Yushchenko to power in 2004 in the Orange Revolution. Then, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Independence Square and kept up weeks of protest until fraudulent presidential election results in favour of Mr Yanukovych were annulled.

Yesterday, supporters of Yulia Tymoshenko, the President’s former ally in the revolution, mounted a much smaller demonstration in the square. Ms Tymoshenko, who has positioned herself as the main opposition leader and the true heir to the liberal pro-Western spirit of 2004, had threatened to inspire a second Orange revolution unless the President dissolved Parliament.

Mr Yushchenko made his announcement in a dramatic televised address to the nation late on Monday after the failure of seven hours of talks to resolve a dispute with Mr Yanukovych’s governing coalition. He said that elections would take place on May 27.

The President accused Mr Yanukovych of usurping power and acting unconstitutionally by persuading eleven opposition deputies to switch sides and support the Government. The Prime Minister responded yesterday by asking the Constitutional Court to rule on whether the President’s order for new elections was legal.

In an attempt to block the President, legislators from the majority coalition voted to dissolve Ukraine’s election commission and stop the Government spending public funds on preparations for a ballot.

The crisis is the culmination of a long struggle between the President and the Prime Minister since the popular revolt that brought Mr Yushchenko to power. Mr Yanukovych returned to prominence with a victory in parliamentary elections last March, forcing Mr Yushchenko to appoint him as Prime Minister.

Since then, Mr Yanukovych’s coalition with the Socialists and Communists has weakened the President’s power steadily. Mr Yushchenko, fearing for his future, brought the issue to a head over the defection of the Opposition deputies. The ruling coalition now controls 260 seats in the 450-seat Parliament and would be able to override presidential vetoes and amend the constitution once it reaches 300.

The EU’s External Relations Commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, urged the two sides to find a peaceful solution, saying that it was “of highest importance that political stability be reestablished in Ukraine”.

Analysts said that Mr Yushchenko had made his greatest gamble since taking to the streets to win public support for the Orange revolution. Many suggested that he had handed the initiative in the struggle for power to Mr Yanukovych and Ms Tymoshenko.

“He yielded to pressure and did what Yulia wanted,” said Mykhailo Pogrebinsky, a political analyst linked to Mr Yanukovych’s Government.

Vadim Karasev, director of the Institute of Global Strategies in Kiev, said: “What other option did the President have? To look on in silence as the pro-Russians seized all of his power?”

The central characters

Viktor Yushchenko’s face still bears the scars of the poison was used in an attempt to assassinate him during his struggle to win the presidency against Viktor Yanukovych in 2004.

His Orange Revolution promised radical reforms and a pro-Western agenda to take Ukraine into the EU and Nato.

His popularity waned as voters became frustrated by the failure of the Orange coalition and the conflict in Parliament with Yanukovych’s Party of the Regions.

Viktor Yanukovych was regarded as Moscow’s candidate during the Orange Revolution, the success of which appeared to have killed off his political career. As Ukraine’s comeback king, he won parliamentary elections last year and forced Yushchenko to accept his candidacy as Prime Minister. He has since used his majority in Parliament to drain his rival of power.

Yulia Tymoshenko has agitated for the dissolution of Parliament, which she sees as her opportunity to regain power.

She has positioned herself as the true heir to the Orange revolution since Mr Yushchenko sacked her as Prime Minister 18 months ago.

She overcame divisions with Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine bloc to form a united opposition to Yanukovych, but few doubt her ambition to replace both men as Ukraine’s leader

Source: Times Archive

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