• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Yushchenko Pledges To Protest Until He Gains Victory

25 November 2004 -- Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko today pledged to press on with mass protests in Kyiv until he secures victory in the presidential election, which he says was stolen from him.

Yushchenko told protesters on Kyiv's central Independence Square that he will not leave the spot until he is acknowledged as president.

His comments come one day after Ukrainian authorities formally declared that his rival for the presidency, Prime Minister Victor Yanukovych, had won the 21 November runoff.

The opposition has initiated legal action in a bid to overturn the result. Interfax news agency says opposition officials lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court today calling for an annulment.

Mass Protests

Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have massed in the center of the city today despite blustery winds and freezing temperatures to support Yushchenko and challenge the conduct and tally of the runoff.

Numerous demonstrators had spent another night camping out in tents pitched in downtown Kyiv to protest the alleged voter fraud.

Overnight, small groups of Yanukovych supporters also demonstrated in the streets of the capital. Both sides appeared to be trying to avoid open confrontation, with no incidents of major violence reported.

Police and the military protected the president's office and the election headquarters overnight, but otherwise police and security forces appear to be keeping a low profile.

In the western city of Lviv, an opposition stronghold, the speaker of the Lviv regional assembly declared Yushchenko the legitimate president of Ukraine. Mikhail Sendak said today that authorities in the region will only obey orders from Yushchenko and called on other regions to follow suit.

Countering The Opposition

Supporters of Yanukovych have also planned for counter rallies later today in Kyiv.

Outgoing President Leonid Kuchma, who supports Yanukovych, has spoken of the risk of Ukraine toppling into civil war over the disputed presidential election.

In a speech shown on state television yesterday, Kuchma accused Ukraine's private Channel 5 television station of helping to prepare an overthrow of the government by giving broad coverage of the protests.

"The leadership of the country, security specialists, warned us that the provocative broadcasts of so-called objective news on Channel 5 prepared the ground for a coup d'etat, irrespective of the outcome of the election," Kuchma said.

Kuchma also said that he had asked both Yanukovych and Yushchenko to hold talks to defuse tensions, and he appealed to the international community to refrain from direct interference in Ukraine's internal affairs.

He said there had been appeals from what he called Ukraine's strategic partners "to re-examine the outcome of the election campaign" -- an apparent reference to Western calls for an inquiry into the conduct of the election.

Opposition Urges General Strike

Yesterday's call by Yushchenko and the opposition for a general strike to protest the vote tally appears to have had little impact in the capital Kyiv.

"A path to a compromise through people demonstrating their will is the only path that will help us find a way out of this conflict," Yushchenko told a rally after the official results were released yesterday. "Therefore, the committee of national salvation declares a nationwide political strike."

But teachers in Lviv went on strike as thousands of students boycotted classes, apparently to protest the election.

International Reaction

At a Russian-European Union summit in the Netherlands today, the Ukrainian election is among topics that are being discussed between Russian President Vladimir Putin and EU officials. The issue has highlighted divisions between Russia and the West, with Moscow accusing the international community of meddling and inciting violence in the former Soviet Union.

Putin has sent another congratulatory message to Yanukovych on the latter's official election victory, saying that "the most favorable conditions have been created for the Russia-Ukraine strategic partnership."

It is the second such message in the wake of the runoff, with the first coming on 22 November and sparking criticism since the vote count was still under way and it was clear that opposition leaders would challenge the official results.

The EU issued a statement last night saying Ukrainian authorities must remedy irregularities reported by international observers.

Former Polish President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Walesa has reportedly gone to Kyiv to try to mediate in the crisis.

In Germany, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer today called for the Ukrainian election to be examined under international supervision.

Copyright (c) 2004. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org