Yushchenko refuses prime minister position under Yanukovych

(AP) - Raising pressure on his government foes, opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko on Nov. 30 rejected an offer of the prime minister's job from the declared winner of Ukraine's disputed election, and his allies withdrew from compromise talks.

Both sides in the struggle anxiously awaited a Supreme Court verdict on Yushchenko's appeal of the vote results that gave Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych the win in the Nov. 21 presidential runoff, but the court adjourned for the night without a decision.

Hundreds of thousands who support Yushchenko claim of rampant fraud kept up the massive street protests they have maintained since an the election, jamming Kyiv's central square, filling a giant tent camp on the main avenue and laying siege to official buildings.

While the opposition wants the court to make Yushchenko the winner, outgoing President Leonid Kuchma has proposed a new election and Yanukovych said he and Yushchenko should both bow out of if a new vote is held.

"If this election brings a split in the country ... I'm ready to drop my bid along with him," Yanukovych said.

Yushchenko ignored the proposal, which appeared to be a government effort to cut him out of the picture under the guise of a compromise. Yushchenko has led the opposition for years and was long seen as its candidate in the election, while Kuchma anointed Yanukovych as his favored successor just last spring, hoping his prominence as prime minister would attract votes.

Yushchenko also rebuffed the offer of the prime minister's post under a Yanukovych presidency, saying it fell far short of a solution to Ukraine's crisis.

"The election was rigged," he said. "People are asking whether this country has a political elite capable of upholding a fair vote."

Yanukovych again pleaded Nov. 30 for an end to round-the-clock-protests, which he said would ruin the economy, but the opposition promised to tighten its blockade of official buildings.

Yushchenko's side said Nov. 30 it was breaking off compromise talks with Yanukovych, accusing him of trying to drag them out to consolidate his grip on power. The talks were launched last week under the mediation of European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski.

Solana arrived in Kyiv late Nov. 30 for another round of talks and is to be joined Dec. 1 by Kwasniewski and Organization for Security and Coopreation in Europe Secretary General Jan Kubis. Solana told reporters he would meet with Kuchma on Tuesday night and hold talks involving both rival candidates and other foreign intermediaries on Wednesday.

"I'm sure that with the good will of everybody we will see the progress in the coming days," Solana said.

He and others in the West have also stressed the importance of averting a split between Ukraine's mostly Russian-speaking east, Yanukovych's support base, and the western regions where Western-leaning Yuschenko is popular.

Yanukovych supporters called this week for autonomy in the east if Yushchenko is installed as president.

With the U.S. administration urging Kuchma to intervene, the risk of a split seemed to ease after he warned of the danger and held consultations with eastern governors who threatened to seek autonomy. Ukraine's security agency opened a probe into the regional actions.

Donetsk Governor Anatoliy Bliznyuk said his region wouldn't hold its referendum on self-rule as planned Dec. 5, but that it could be held later. The Kharkiv regional legislature also retracted its threat to introduce self-rule.

The election dispute that has wracked Ukraine also raged Nov. 30 in the nation's parliament, where an opposition motion to declare no-confidence in Yanukovych's Cabinet was defeated.

Lawmakers also tentatively approved a measure that would have annulled the Nov. 27 nonbinding decision declaring the election invalid, and throngs of opposition supporters rushed into the parliament building to prevent its final approval.

Parliament speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn called a break in the session until Dec. 1 and sought to quell passions, promising that the parliament wouldn't cancel the previous decision.

For the second day, the Supreme Court heard an opposition appeal focusing on results from eight eastern and southern regions - more than 15 million votes, almost half of the total cast in the runoff.

Yushchenko's lawyers cited turnout of above 100 percent in hundreds of precincts in Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as alleged problems with voting lists and multiple voting with absentee ballots. The opposition asked the court to name Yushchenko the winner based on his narrow plurality of the votes in the election's first round on Oct. 31.

The West has refused to recognize the election results, while Russia - which still has considerable influence over Ukraine - congratulated Yanukovych and complained of Western meddling. Speaking to German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated Nov. 30 that the dispute must be resolved without foreign pressure.

The political crisis has led to fears that Ukraine, which has the fastest growing economy in Europe but where millions live in poverty, could plunge into economic turmoil. Many Ukrainians have waited in long lines to exchange the national currency, hryvna, for U.S. dollars, and there have been warnings of runs on bank deposits.

It is apparent that Yushchenko on the one hand and Yanukovych/Kuchma/Putin on the other have very different ideas about what kind of compromise was to be discussed. Yushchenko was calling for new elections and presumably the issue for him was under what terms such elections should be held, while Yanukovih appears unwilling to contemplate such an idea.

It seems highly unlikely to me now that Yanukovych will be able to pull out a victory based solely on the "official" results. Yushchenko/Tymoshenko will NOT give up on anything.

Kuchma and Yanukovych have two options: re-vote or secede. The future of Ukraine rests on their decision - between power or the good of the people.

What is wrong with a split? You have two parts of a country that speak a different language and want very different futures for their government. I say let the eastern part of the Ukraine split off and join Russia. Problem solved. The only reason this is frowned upon is the general "one-world" mentality which suggests that we ought to be trending towards, not away from, one-world government.

There are two problems, and the bit of the article there is slightly misleading: While most of eastern Ukraine speaks Russian, a good portion of Western Ukraine does too (70% of Kyiv, Yushchenko's de facto home base, speaks Russian), and there is little difference between the Russian and Ukrainian languages, anyway. The language difference line is very misleading and not, frankly, a good argument for splitting the country.

Also, only three territories have as yet even uttered the possibility of secession, and only two of those have proposed any action thereof, both being generally divisive in the populace. I don't doubt that Kuchma and Yanukovich could rally up a bucket of support for a split referendum, but as of right now, the rabid desire necessary simply isn't there...

From what I understand, the real battle between Russia and Ukraine is over access to the Black Sea ports. Not alot of room for compromise if both want the same thing.

Thanks for clarifying. I figured they were probably like Romance languages in their relationship.

My only experience with either language has been recently with this election, and Babelfish, translating from Russian to English, has been fairly reliable in deciphering out Ukrainian.

Thanks, though, for pointing that out. I presume you have background in Ukraine, as you speak the language?

"Compromise"--Yanukovych commits rampant fraud and intimidation, claims victory, then sends out men in black with hammers.

The days of three steps forward, two steps back are over.

Yanukovych, take four steps back and we'll call it a deal.

What is wrong with a split? You have two parts of a country that speak a different language and want very different futures for their government. I say let the eastern part of the Ukraine split off and join Russia

The problem is that the former state owned industrie in the east were more readily sold off than the farmland in the west. It was sold to the inside Kuchma crowd for ten cents on the dollar and now that they are losing control, they are trying to justify secession with this false language issue. Kiev is the center of the rebellion and it has been russian speaking ever since stgalin killed 15 million in the 30,s and russified the survivors

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