Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

Presidential candidate Victor Yanukovych continues to insist that Russian playwright Anton Chekhov was a great poet with close ties to Ukraine. During a last-minute campaign appearance on the nation's most-watched INTER telelvision station on Feb. 5, presidential candidate Victor Yanukovych continued to insist that Anton Chekhov was a poet.

“I said that that Chekhov was a great poet, that he spent a lot of time in Ukraine and became one of us [a Ukrainian],” Yanukovych said. “I know full well who Chekhov was.”

In fact, Chekhov (1860-1904) was a Russian-short story writer, playwright and physician. He did not write poetry.

“Medicine is my lawful wife", Chekhov famously said once, "and literature is my mistress.”

Excerpted video of Yanukovych's campaign appearance on INTER TV on Feb. 5 can be viewed here.