President-elect Viktor Yushchenko, committed to quick action to nudge Ukraine towards Europe, urged his ex-Soviet state on the eve of today's inauguration to overcome deep-seated divisions after a bruising election.
The liberal Yushchenko will take the oath in parliament and then address a crowd in Kiev's Independence Square, focal point of weeks of rallies by supporters backing his allegations of fraud in a first round of polls won by his Moscow-backed rival.
Hundreds of thousands will attend today's events, which Yushchenko wants to turn into a celebration to mark Ukraine's coming of age 14 years after independence from Soviet rule.
As aircraft ferried in dignitaries, Yushchenko made a symbolic gesture by taking the oath of hetman - the leaders who ran Ukraine on democratic lines in the 17th and 18th centuries. "A civil movement is a good foundation for Ukrainian unity," Yushchenko said after kissing and holding aloft a metallic mace outside the 11th century St Sofia Cathedral. Looking on were about 200 Cossacks, moustachioed and brightly dressed modern-day exponents of a long Ukrainian tradition underpinning bids to achieve statehood.
Yushchenko, flanked by the allies that will make up his ministerial team, also laid wreaths to mark "unity day" in 1918, when a shortlived state restored control over Ukrainian lands before the encroachment of Russian Bolshevik rule. The election, drawn out over three months, sharpened differences between nationalist western Ukraine and central regions, which supported Yushchenko, and the Russian-speaking industrial east, solidly behind his rival, Viktor Yanukovich.
Yanukovich, also backed for a time by Moscow, was declared winner of a November election, but the Supreme Court overturned the result on grounds of fraud and Yushchenko won the re-run.
Presidents of at least six countries were expected for the festivities, including Poland, Romania, Hungary, Estonia and Latvia - ex-communist states committed to European integration. Also on his way was outgoing US Secretary of State Colin Powell. Yushchenko's Website said US President George W. Bush congratulated the president-elect by telephone and Yushchenko responded by describing the countries as "strategic partners".
Yushchenko quickly embarks on trips to opposite ends of Europe to build links to help Ukraine join key institutions.
Tomorrow, he fulfils a promise to make Moscow his first foreign destination by meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin. His programme next week includes visits to the Council of Europe, a major rights body, the European Parliament, the World Economic Forum in Switzerland and commemorations in Poland of the Soviet army's liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.
On Friday, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana held out the prospect of eventual Ukrainian membership.