Ukraine Premier Named Winner

Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko called Wednesday for a nationwide strike to close down schools, factories and transportation after authorities declared Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich the winner of Ukraine’s bitterly contested presidential election.

U.S. officials, citing allegations of fraud, swiftly rejected the legitimacy of the result, called for a review of the vote and warned of possible penalties. “If the Ukrainian government does not act immediately and responsibly,” Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said in Washington, “there will be consequences for our relationship, for Ukraine’s hopes for Euro-Atlantic integration and for individuals responsible for perpetrating fraud.”

As tension over the election continued to rise, both Yushchenko and outgoing President Leonid D. Kuchma -- who has backed Yanukovich -- cautioned that the nation was at risk for civil war.

A massive crowd of Yushchenko supporters gathered in and around central Kiev’s Independence Square for a third day. Addressing the throng, Yushchenko condemned the decision to name Yanukovich the winner and declared, “With this decision, they wanted to bring us to our knees. My friends, not a single tear should drop with this news. I want to pledge that the actions against this regime will be even stronger.”

Yushchenko said the general strike would be “our answer to the lawlessness of Kuchma and Yanukovich.” In addition to the work stoppage, the opposition is pressing legal challenges to the vote count.

Despite Yushchenko’s assertion that the country was on “the edge of civil war,” the mood among his supporters in the streets remained more festive than fearful.

The Central Election Commission declared Yanukovich the winner of Sunday’s vote with 49.5% to Yushchenko’s 46.6%. The prime minister, whose base of support lies in largely Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, was Moscow’s favored candidate.

An exit poll funded in part by the U.S. Embassy and other Western diplomatic missions had shown Yushchenko winning 54% to 43%, and foreign observers have charged that massive vote-rigging and election irregularities created a fraudulent result. Yushchenko, seen as a pro-Western democratic reformer, has his base of support in Kiev, the capital, and in the country’s primarily Ukrainian-speaking western region.

The final outcome of the crisis will probably determine whether this former Soviet republic of 48 million people will move toward warmer ties with the United States and Europe or a tighter relationship with Russia. But both Russian and U.S. officials have sought to play down the geopolitical overtones of the conflict.

“We’re not looking for [any] contest with the Russians over this,” Powell said in Washington. “We’re looking for a way to make sure that the will of the Ukrainian people is respected.”

Foreign observers have alleged that various abuses were used to inflate Yanukovich’s totals and reduce Yushchenko’s votes. These included the disenfranchisement of many citizens through faulty voter lists, the use of absentee ballots and mobile ballot boxes to allow multiple voting in support of Yanukovich, and illegal measures to invalidate results in districts favoring Yushchenko. There also have been allegations of direct computer manipulation of the vote count.

Yanukovich appeared on state television Wednesday to propose talks with Yushchenko -- but on the basis of himself being president-elect. “We will look for common ground,” he said. “I am ready to listen to the opposition proposals.... We must improve our lives, and we will do it together -- all of our citizens and myself as president of Ukraine.”

In his televised remarks, Kuchma alluded to the civil war after the communist revolution that established the Soviet Union. “The civil war at the beginning of the last century -- which we know about, thank goodness, only from films -- could well become a reality at the present time,” he said.

Accusing the opposition of trying to “carry out ... a plan of a coup d’etat,” Kuchma reiterated his call for “all political forces to negotiate immediately” and asked the international community to “refrain from interference in Ukraine’s affairs.”

In Warsaw, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, considered a personal friend of Kuchma’s, said he might head to Kiev to play the role of mediator.

“I have been invited by both Yushchenko and Kuchma to come to Kiev, but no decision has been made, because I should go only when there is material for a serious discussion,” Kwasniewski told journalists in the Polish capital.

Yulia Tymoshenko -- a Ukrainian opposition leader who has been playing the role of fiery activist in counterpoint to Yushchenko’s more presidential demeanor -- told the crowd in Independence Square that protesters 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, vowing a “consistent struggle that will lead to the destruction of this regime.”

Yushchenko backers said they had established a “National Salvation Committee” in a government building they had peacefully taken over a few hundred yards from the main rally site.

“As far as I know, the employees just let people in,” said Tanya Bushnova, a local journalist at the site. “There are 300 people from Lviv [a western city] staying there. I think other buildings will voluntarily open their doors as well.”

Some protesters went to the nearby presidential administration building, where for a second evening they faced off against hundreds of riot police. Throughout the day, protesters had stuck flowers into the officers’ shields.

Among Yushchenko backers, fears of immediate violence have centered on the possibility that paid provocateurs or Yanukovich supporters arriving in Kiev by bus from the eastern mining region of Donetsk might initiate clashes.

When hundreds of Yanukovich backers gathered outside the Central Election Commission building Wednesday afternoon, Yushchenko supporters who were there pulled back and rejoined the main rally in Independence Square in a bid to reduce the possibility of clashes.

Alexey Silioh, 21, a Kiev electrician who joined the Yanukovich supporters outside the commission, said he believed the Yushchenko camp wanted to see violence. “I can clearly feel the provocation,” he said. “If there is a conflict, we’ll have NATO forces here and we’ll become a colony.”

Zina Korobanova, 53, a pensioner who came from eastern Ukraine to support Yanukovich, said she feared that if Yushchenko were to become president, he would shut down coal mines, worsening unemployment in the area.

By Wednesday afternoon, an encampment established by Yushchenko backers near Independence Square had grown to about 600 tents. In addition to sheltering supporters, its purpose appeared to be to provide a Yushchenko stronghold in the city center, ensuring that traffic could not move freely and that protesters could not be dispersed without the use of force.

Yanukovich supporters had begun setting up tents in a nearby park Tuesday, but by Wednesday evening that encampment was shrinking, amid indications that some backers of the prime minister were leaving the city.

The large crowds filling the capital prompted the State Department on Wednesday to warn U.S. citizens in Ukraine to avoid central Kiev because of “the potential for civil unrest and disturbances.”

Powell urged all sides “to work to achieve a fair and just outcome without the use of force.”