Yanukovich claims Ukraine presidency

KIEV, Ukraine, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich has apparently won Ukraine's presidential election, preliminary results indicated Monday.

His opponent, Ukraine Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, had refused to concede, however, The New York Times reported.

The newspaper said that with 96 percent of the ballots counted from Sunday's runoff voting, Yanukovich, leader of the pro-Moscow Party of Regions, had 48.3 percent of the vote to Tymoshenko's 46.1 percent.

Tymoshenko, one of the leaders of the 2004 Orange Revolution, is reportedly expected to challenge the election results.

"I will do everything to ensure that the citizens of Ukraine, no matter where in the country they live, feel comfortable and calm in a stable country," the Times quoted Yanukovich as saying late Sunday at his Kiev campaign headquarters.

The newspaper said that if the numbers hold up, the election would be seen as a reaction against the Orange Revolution, during which Yanukovich which portrayed as an incompetent puppet of the Kremlin. The apparent winner had blasted the Revolution as the source of political and economic turmoil rather than the enlightened post-Soviet political model its supporters claimed.