Encyclopedia Britannica by
The presidential election of 2004 brought Ukraine to the brink of disintegration and civil war. Cleared to seek a third term as president by the Constitutional Court, Kuchma instead endorsed the candidacy of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who was also strongly supported by Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin. Yushchenkoârunning on an anticorruption, anticronyism platformâemerged as the leading opposition candidate, but his campaign was prevented from visiting Yanukovychâs stronghold of Donetsk and other eastern cities. In September Yushchenkoâs health began to fail, and medical tests later revealed he had suffered dioxin poisoning (allegedly carried out by the Ukrainian State Security Service), which left his face disfigured. In the first round of the presidential election, on October 31, Yushchenko and Yanukovych both won about two-fifths of the vote. In the runoff the following month, Yanukovych was declared the winner, though Yushchenkoâs supporters charged fraud and staged mass protests that came to be known as the Orange Revolution. Protestors clad in orange, Yushchenkoâs campaign colour, took to the streets, and the country endured nearly two weeks of demonstrations. Yanukovychâs supporters in the east threatened to secede from Ukraine if the results were annulled. Nevertheless, on December 3 the Supreme Court ruled the election invalid and ordered a new runoff for December 26. Yushchenko subsequently defeated Yanukovych by garnering some 52 percent of the vote. Although Yanukovych challenged the validity of the results, Yushchenko was inaugurated on January 23, 2005…
