Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Russia denies sending troops to Ukraine, as protests continue

Moscow, Nov 23 (UNI) Russia today denied media repots that it was sending troops to Ukraine, as hundreds of thousands of supporters of opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko marched to the building of Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, from the Independence Square in the centre of Kiev, the capital of ex-Soviet republic.

''Reports in some media outlets about Russian interior servicemen being sent to Ukraine are not true, and I categorically deny them,'' Interfax quoted the spokesman for the Russian Interior Ministry Col.

Vasily Panchenkov.

''There are no soldiers of the Interior Ministry forces outside Russia,'' he added.

An extraditionary session of the Rada has been convened to express no confidence in the Ukrainian Central Election Commission and annul the results. Mr Yushchenko has accused the Commission of falsifying the vote.

Ukrainian security forces warned the protesters that they were ready to crack down on any manifestation of lawlessness.

Russian television stations reported that supporters of Yushchenko, continued to hold rallies throughout Ukraine, for the second day today, protesting against the results of the Sunday's presidential round-off which gave victory to incumbent pro-Moscow Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich by a narrow margin of about 3 per cent.

Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday telephoned Mr Yanukovych from Brazilia and congratulated him on his officially declared victory in Ukraine's presidential election.

During the talks, Putin and Yanukovich emphasized that ''the struggle had been heated but open and honest and that the victory was convincing,'' Putin's spokesman Alexei Gromov told Interfax.

Earlier, today about 100,000 protesters, carrying orange flags, wearing orange scarves and ribbons, marched from the Independence Square to the parliament building, Russian media reported.

Residents of Kiev and other regions had been pouring to the square since morning to participate in the rally. They brought food and warm clothes for those who are staying in tents put up on the square and on the city's central Kreshchatik street.

Pro-Yushchenko rallies were also held in the cities of Vinnytsya, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Rivno, Kharkiv and Donetsk-on-Kreshchatyk.

Priests of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church conducted a service, where representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kiev Patriarchate were present.

As the Rada met in its emergency session, Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn ruled out the possibility that a state of emergency would be declared in Ukraine.

''I rule out a state of emergency,'' he told reporters, adding that ''Declaring a state of emergency would involve broader resistance.'' Monitors for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have already criticized the election results, saying the vote fell far short of European democratic norms.

Expressing ''deep concerns,'' the US has threatened to review its relations with Ukraine if the government failed to investigate the opposition accusations of vote-rigging.

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