Yushchenko attacks, Yanukovich ducks in Ukraine's debate ahead of rerun vote

[CVX]

Ukraine's presidential rivals faced off in a live television debate, with opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko slamming his opponent for vote fraud while Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich scrambled to distance himself from his own government.

"The election of November 21 was stolen by my opponent and his team," Yushchenko said, speaking in Ukrainian, in his opening remarks in reference to a vote officially won by his rival but later annulled by the supreme court because of fraud.

"You stole three million votes," he repeatedly said to his opponent during the debate.

"They tried to steal our future," said the leader of the "orange revolution" that embroiled Ukraine and enflamed tensions between Russia and the West for weeks after the poll.

"The motivating force of this process is the people who no longer want to live under criminal power and in a shadow economy," Yushchenko said.

Yanukovich, speaking in Russian, said in his opening remarks that he was also fighting against the regime of outgoing leader Leonid Kuchma.

"Those on (Kiev's central Independence) Square lived this revolution with their souls and I agree with them," Yanukovich said in his opening statement.

He suggested to Yushchenko that the two men should unite efforts "to send this old regime into retirement" and warned that otherwise "one of us will be elected president of one part of the country."

More: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/041220/1/3pdv3.html