Confrontation Looms in Ukraine Over Premier’s Plans to Return

KIEV, Ukraine — Viktor Yushchenko, the unofficial winner of Ukraine’s fiercely fought presidential contest, called Tuesday for supporters to block his opponent, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, from holding a meeting today of what the opposition leader termed an illegal government.

The renewed confrontation between the bitter rivals came as the Central Election Commission announced that with 100% of precincts counted, Yushchenko had won Sunday’s repeat presidential runoff vote by 51.99% to 44.19%. Some voters opted not to endorse either candidate. Yanukovich has vowed to challenge the result before the Supreme Court, which overturned his narrow victory in Nov. 21 balloting on grounds of fraud.

As tensions rose again, the Council of Europe, which monitors human rights, urged Yanukovich to accept defeat.

“I call on all parties to accept the verdict of the ballot box and to refrain from rhetoric which may fuel division in Ukraine,” Terry Davis, the council’s secretary-general, said Tuesday.

In calling on supporters to blockade the Cabinet building, Yushchenko implied that he wanted not only to enforce an earlier parliamentary decision dismissing Yanukovich, but also to prevent the government from privatizing state assets or transferring money abroad during its final days in office.

Parliament voted several weeks ago, at the height of Ukraine’s political crisis, to remove Yanukovich from his post and disband his government. But the prime minister’s supporters argue that the action was not binding due to legal technicalities. Yanukovich never formally left. Instead, he took vacation to campaign. Outgoing President Leonid D. Kuchma, rather than accepting the parliamentary move, allowed him to take leave. Yanukovich said Tuesday that he would resume work today.

“It was announced today that the illegal government headed by former Prime Minister Yanukovich will meet tomorrow morning,” Yushchenko told supporters Tuesday evening at a victory rally in central Kiev’s Independence Square.

The crowd of about 70,000 responded with chants of “Shame! Shame!” Yushchenko said he wanted to state “on behalf of Independence Square” -- the site of the massive rallies that helped trigger Sunday’s revote -- that “there will be no session of the illegal Cabinet at the government building.”

“An honest government should enter there, one formed according to the law and constitution of Ukraine,” Yushchenko said. “That’s why I’d ask everybody, especially those living in the tent city, to step up the blockade of the Cabinet building starting early morning tomorrow. I am convinced that the prosecutor general’s office should take appropriate actions regarding the so-called government meeting.”

Oleksandr Ternavsky, a Yanukovich spokesman, said the Cabinet would meet as planned. He called Yushchenko’s move “completely illegal.” But Yushchenko told his supporters that “there are probably very few examples in political history where a parliament dismissed the government according to the constitution and it says: I don’t want to leave, I will be back, I will rule and I will represent the country illegitimately.”

“Dear friends, I would not like it to be a surprise to you when bank drafts worth $700 million are sent from one place in the world to another, when ministers shoot themselves, when in the last days everything they failed to steal so far is privatized, or it’s maybe better to say grabbed,” Yushchenko said.

Yushchenko’s comments referred in part to reports that Transportation Minister Hryhoriy Kirpa, one of Ukraine’s most prominent businessmen, was found dead from a gunshot wound Monday at his home outside Kiev.

The prosecutor general’s office announced Tuesday that it was investigating the death as a possible case of someone “driven to suicide.” Kirpa, 58, had close ties with Viktor Medvedchuk, the chief of staff to Kuchma.

Yushchenko did not explain his reference to $700 million, but an associate later told the rally that it had been discovered that, shortly before his death, Kirpa had signed a document authorizing payment of 700 million hryvnas, the Ukrainian currency, for a nonexistent bridge. That sum is about $130 million.

Petro Poroshenko, a member of parliament who is Yushchenko’s deputy campaign chairman, told reporters that he believed Kirpa’s death was linked to illegal financial operations.

“That is the destiny of creditors of totalitarian regimes, the destiny of creditors involved in dishonest dealings,” said Poroshenko, a leading contender to become prime minister under Yushchenko.

According to the information obtained by Yushchenko’s team, “a large part of property of the Ukrainian Railways has been transferred to private companies,” Poroshenko said in comments reported by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

Kirpa may have been driven to suicide with the aim of “hiding proof or making him guilty of things in which he was only a tool implementing the plans of people who had much higher posts,” he added.

Poroshenko also said diplomatic passports were being issued in large numbers to people who weren’t eligible for them.