KYIV, Feb. 12 (AP) - Ukraine's most popular politician and opposition leader pledged support for planned nationwide protests next month aimed at forcing President Leonid Kuchma to resign, while calling on top officials to put aside differences to solve the "deepest political crisis in 12 years."
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Viktor Yushchenko, a former Prime Minister and now leader of the reformist Our Ukraine bloc in parliament, said at a news conference that his ranks “will participate maximally” in a March 1 multiparty congress to consider ways to topple Kuchma and in March 9 demonstrations calling for his ouster.
Our Ukraine had previously refused to commit to joining the protests.
Yushchenko, who met with U.S. Vice President Richard Cheney and other U.S. government and business leaders last week, deplored the scandal-tainted Kuchma for leading Ukraine’s “strategic partners” to consider Ukraine a “land of lost opportunities,” equated with “corruption, press repressions, and political censorship.”
