Yushchenko vows victory

Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, diagnosed as suffering from dioxin poisoning, prepared to return to Ukraine yesterday vowing to press on to victory in the re-run of a rigged presidential election.

Ukrainian media said prosecutors had reopened a criminal case after doctors at a Vienna clinic said Yushchenko had been poisoned with dioxin. The case was launched after Mr Yushchenko first underwent treatment in September but was later closed.

Mr Yushchenko told reporters in Vienna he was "happy to be alive".

And he predicted that "the regime that was in place for 14 years in Ukraine is now living its last days".

Mr Yushchenko will be running against Viktor Yanukovich, who had initially been declared the winner of the presidential poll before the result was overturned by the Supreme Court.

Mr Yanukovich had been backed in the earlier poll by outgoing President Leonid Kuchma and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mr Yanukovich has since turned on his mentor Mr Kuchma, acccusing him of failing to uphold the constitution and doing nothing to stop the "orange coup" - mass protests by orange-clad Yushchenko supporters.

Mr Yushchenko likened Ukraine's upheaval after the now-discredited election to the fall of the Soviet Union or the Berlin wall. Thousands of Yushchenko supporters brought Kiev to a virtual halt for more than two weeks to demand a new poll.

"We had not seen anything like that for the past 100 years. I believe it would be appropriate to compare this to the fall of the Soviet Union or the fall of the Berlin wall," he said.

Doctors at the Rudolfinerhaus clinic said on Saturday that Mr Yushchenko had been the victim of dioxin poisoning but were unable to say whether it was the result of a deliberate act.

Obliged to stop campaigning for a time, Mr Yushchenko said it was part of a plot to kill him. His face remains bloated and pocked, though he says he is now in good physical shape.

But Mr Yushchenko, who has long alleged he was the victim of a failed murder plot, said on his website www.yushchenko.com.ua that he would not engage in speculation ahead of the new vote on who might have been behind the poisoning.

"It would be unethical on my part to express any opinion on this problem," he said. "This requires thorough investigation."

In Kiev, senior officials including Mr Kuchma have yet to comment on the poisoning revelations.