The United States on Wednesday night raised the stakes in Ukraine’s election crisis when Colin Powell, the secretary of state, insisted that Washington would not accept the official result and threatened to ostracise the Russian-backed regime.
His intervention, which sets the Bush administration on a collision course with Moscow, came as the opposition leader, Viktor Yushchenko, called for a nationwide strike and up to 100 000 of his supporters braved blizzards and freezing temperatures to once again mass in Kiev’s Independence Square.
Outgoing President Leonid Kuchma warned that civil war could ”become a reality”, and asked the world community to stay out of Ukraine’s affairs.
Hours earlier — dismissing pressure from European leaders — Ukraine’s central election commission declared the Putin-backed prime minister, Viktor Yanukovich, the winner of the election, which has been marred by widespread claims of fraud and ballot rigging.
Towards the end of a heady day which teetered between violence and carnival, Powell challenged Ukraine’s leaders ”to decide whether they are on the side of democracy or not”. ”If the Ukrainian government does not act im mediately and responsibly, there will be consequences for our relationship, for Ukraine’s hopes for a Euro-Atlantic integration and for individuals responsible for perpetrating fraud,” he said.
Almost immediately, Yanukovich announced that negotiations with the opposition would begin on Thursday.
”We will be looking for common language,” he told the Russian Interfax news agency. ”Ukraine is our common land, and we should have a chance to live together as well as possible.”
The concession came after another tense stand-off in the capital, with supporters of both sides converging on the offices of the election commission, which announced that Yanukovich had won Sunday’s presidential run-off with a lead of nearly three points, 49,46% to 46,61. A clearly angered Yushchenko dismissed the announcement. ”We do not recognise the election as officially declared,” he said. The proclamation of victory for Yanukovich put Ukraine ”on the brink of civil conflict”.
Addressing his supporters, he called for a strike that would involve ”stopping lessons at schools and universities, stopping work at enterprises, stopping transport … and, thus, we’ll force the authorities to think about what they are doing.”
Yuliya Tymoshenko, Yushchenko’s key ally, said the opposition would ”surround all government buildings, block railways, airports and highways”.
”We have a strict intention to seize power in our hands at these sites,” she said.
With the country paralysed for a fourth day, there was no sign that supporters of Yushchenko were being cowed by the refusal of the authorities to give way.
After opposition MPs addressed the largest crowd that had gathered so far, loud music began playing and protesters danced.
Streams of them spilled out from the central square across the city, kicking up the snow and insisting they would remain until the bitter end.
The protest had become increasingly organised. A truck appeared broadcasting the opposition TV channel 5, a medical tent was set up and men began hacking at sheet ice that was slowing crowd movement.
On hearing the declaration from election officials, two columns of protesters marched out of Independence Square, one heading for the presidential administration and another for the commission.
Whipping up the crowds, Yushchenko repeated the condemnations of election abuses made by the US, EU and Nato in the last week and mentioned the possibility of a third vote.
He said: ”We are ready to have a repeat of the second round vote provided we have an honest Central Election Commission.”
Though smaller in number, the prime minister’s supporters were also on the streets yesterday, waving blue flags and promising their own determined show of support. All day rumours swirled of the arrival of columns of miners from Donetsk, the shock troops of Yanukovich’s campaign, but they failed to turn up.
One protester called Yushchenko a western puppet, saying that ”we are not against working with the US,” but adding that Iraq ”showed a tendency that we don’t like”. – Guardian Unlimited Â