In what will most likely be our final Ukraine update of the year, Viktor Yanukovych has resigned as Prime Minister of Ukraine.
“I have made a decision and am formally submitting my resignation,” he said in a televised address.
However, the man declared to have lost the country’s re-run presidential election to Western-leaning Viktor Yushchenko has refused [...]

Ukraine’s Central Election Commission has rejected Viktor Yanukovych’s appeal against the result of the re-vote in its entirety, reports AP. Yanukovych is now expected to appeal to the Supreme Court.
His campaign manager stated: “We … call on our supporters, which are 15 million, not to split the state, to observe the law and not to [...]

While the official results of yesterday’s re-run Presidential election will likely not be announced for a couple of days, opposition candidate Viktor Yushshenko looks certain to win this time - if the country’s Central Election Commission has been doing a better job than in November. The BBC has calculated that he has “an unassailable lead” [...]

KIEV, Ukraine (Reuters) - Exit polls in the re-run of Ukraine’s presidential election Sunday said liberal challenger Viktor Yushchenko had beaten Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich by a wide margin.
Yushchenko, who called crowds of supporters into the streets to denounce cheating in the last poll, scored 56.5 percent to 41.3 percent for Yanukovich, according to a [...]

Speaking to reporters during the Russian-German governmental consultations, Russian President Putin confirmed that he will respect the result of the - less manipulated - re-run of the Ukrainian Presidential election next Sunday.
“I know Mr Yushchenko as I do the current Prime Minister Mr Yanukovich … He has also been a member of President (Leonid) [...]

More information about the poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko is coming out as the doctors analyse the samples more, and what’s being found out is frankly scary:
Tests have revealed that the chemical used to poison Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko was pure TCDD, the most harmful known dioxin.
TCDD is a key ingredient in Agent Orange - [...]

Significantly trailing in the polls for the repeated Presidential election on December 26, the Ukrainian “establishment candidate” Victor Yanukovych, declared today that reports about his urging the use of violence are wrong. According to the BBC -
Mr Yanukovych says he merely urged Mr Kuchma to restore order according to the constitution. ‘This information is false. [...]

The Financial Times has an interesting article about how the Ukrainian government did consider the use of force against the protestors, but eventually backed down, mainly because President Kuchma blocked it.
Those lobbying for the use of force included senior officials, among them Viktor Medvedchuk, the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration and Viktor Yanukovich, the [...]

Via the BBC:
Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko’s mystery illness was caused by poisoning, his Vienna doctors say.
The doctors said extensive tests showed a form of dioxin had been used, leaving Mr Yushchenko’s face disfigured.
They described the poisoning as serious and said that if left untreated it could have killed him.
[...]
“There is no doubt about [...]

Following the reports earlier this week about the non-confirmation of the cause of Viktor Yuschenko’s illness, he has now returned to the hospital in Austria this weekend for a series of further tests that will try and assess the cause of it.
At the clinic in Vienna, doctors will carry out tissue biopsies, including tests on [...]