Ukraine's bitter rivals face-off TV debate

The rivals in Ukraine’s bitter race to be president were to face-off in a TV debate today as campaigning for the Boxing Day election intensified.

The debate was scheduled to begin at 5pm and was expected to last about 90 minutes.

Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko said he wanted a “professional” debate with Kremlin favourite, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, in the form of “questions and answers and the accountability of both sides for their words.”

In the previous debate, six days before last month’s discredited run-off election, the two candidates traded heavy accusations using prison slang, economic statistics and personal attacks.

Ukraine’s Supreme Court annulled the runoff results because of massive vote fraud, stripped Yanukovych of his victory and ordered the December 26 rerun.

Meanwhile, the convoy – dubbed the “friendship journey” – of some 50 cars draped with Yushchenko’s orange campaign colours hearted into the premier’s eastern heartland.

Carrying about 150 people, mostly artists and musicians, the convoy is travelling around the former Soviet state of 48 million trying to sow support for Yushchenko in mostly Russian-speaking eastern and southern regions where Yanukovych draws most of his backing.

The convoy has encountered several roadblocks put up by Yanukovych supporters.

Despite fears of violence, Khodovanets said activists were still set to travel to Yanukovych’s hometown of Donetsk and “negotiate free passage to the city with Donetsk authorities”.

Organisers of the road show urged Yanukovych in a letter to influence his supporters in Donetsk “to refrain from aggressive actions”. Yanukovych hasn’t responded.

Throughout the country, Yushchenko’s backers have exhibited videos of the massive opposition protests that swept the capital Kiev for two weeks after Yanukovych was declared the winner of the runoff.

Yesterday, West leaning Yushchenko, accompanied by his children, greeted thousands of Orthodox faithful who gathered on Kiev’s Independence Square to celebrate the date marking the death of one of Orthodoxy’s most revered saints, St Nicholas.

“Soon Ukraine will have a new president … soon we will live in a new, democratic Ukraine,” Yushchenko told the orange-clad, cheering crowd.

Opposition supporters decorated 27 orange plastic Christmas trees representing Ukraine’s regions.

A firebomb seriously damaged Yushchenko’s campaign office in the city of Mariupil in the Donetsk region last night.

There were no injuries, said officials.