Kuchma calls for negotiations in Ukraine

Outgoing President Leonid Kuchma called for negotiations among all sides in Ukraine hours after opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko declared himself the winner of a disputed presidential election.

Outgoing President Leonid Kuchma called for negotiations among all sides in Ukraine’s spiralling political crisis, hours after opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko declared himself the winner of a disputed presidential election and took a symbolic oath of office.

A top opposition figure accepted Kuchma’s proposal, the Interfax news agency reported yesterday.

“We now have decided to give the possibility to Kuchma to form proposals for talks,” Yuliya Tymoshenko said, according to Interfax. It was not immediately clear when the talks might take place.

Yushchenko accused authorities of rigging Sunday’s vote in favour of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and announced a campaign of civil disobedience.

The capital remained tense for a third consecutive day. More than 10,000 Yushchenko supporters marched to the presidential administration building, skirting some heavy trucks that blocked the street and facing off with hundreds of police in full riot gear who were guarding the building.

Police estimated the total number of demonstrators in the streets yesterday at 40,000, but independent estimates ranged as high as 200,000.

In a statement read over state television, Kuchma referred to the demonstrations as “political farce … (which is) extremely dangerous and may lead to unforeseeable consequences.”

The EU yesterday stepped up pressure for the election result to be reviewed. Western observers have said it was seriously flawed.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin, visiting Portugal, branded the observers’ criticism “inadmissible” as there are still no complete official results. Ukraine “doesn’t need to be lectured”, he said through an interpreter.

In Crawford, Texas, the White House said it was “deeply disturbed by extensive and credible indications of fraud committed in the Ukrainian presidential election”, according to spokeswoman Claire Buchan.

“We strongly support efforts to review the conduct of the election and urge Ukrainian authorities not to certify results until investigations of organised fraud are resolved,” she said.