Presidential candidate and Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has said that holiday hotels and vacation retreats around the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, are filled up with militants ready to seize power in the country.
"[Presidential candidate and Regions Party leader Victor] Yanukovych is trying to do the same as in 2004. There are going to be cheats in the Central Electoral Commission and falsifications at polling stations," she said in an interview with the Fifth TV Channel, which was published on the official Web site of the Ukrainian government.
"Once again there will be ballot box stuffing, with hundreds of thousands of false voting slips," Tymoshenko said.
"Since 2004, neither the methods nor the politics of [Viktor] Yanukovych have changed. Therefore, just as in 2004, we are going to be tough and tell him where to get off. Under no circumstances will he get power in Ukraine," she said.
When asked how she plans to fulfill her goal, Tymoshenko said: "I think that we need to act calmly, coldly and lawfully, using the only possibility of convincing people to unite and really defend Ukraine."
Yanukovych and Tymoshenko will compete in a presidential run-off vote on Feb. 7.
