Officially, there were 26 candidates vying to become the next president of Ukraine in late 2004. In reality, it was a contest between two men.
Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Yushchenko was born in the Sumy region of Soviet Ukraine to a family of teachers. He moved to Kyiv in 1985 armed with a PhD in economics and began a career in banking. He rose to become the head of Ukraine’s central bank throughout the economic turmoil brought on by the collapse of the Soviet Union. Yushchenko was a key figure behind Ukraine’s introduction of its own currency, the hryvnya. From 1999 to 2001, he served as prime minister under President Leonid Kuchma.
Yushchenko ran on a pro-Western platform, promising Ukrainians steps toward integration with the EU and NATO.
Viktor Yanukovych
Viktor Yanukovych was born in the eastern Donetsk region of Soviet Ukraine. His mother died when he was two. He later said of his childhood, “I came from a very poor family, and my main dream in life was to break out of this poverty.” He worked various jobs in his youth, including as a mechanic, and was imprisoned twice for violent crime. He eventually rose to lead a string of transport companies. From 1997 to 2002, Yanukovych headed the administration of the Donetsk region and in November 2002 he was appointed prime minister of Ukraine.
Yanukovych strongly favored close ties with Russia and his election campaign was openly supported by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who visited Ukraine several times in 2004.
Vladimir Putin listens to a viewer's question during an appearance on Ukrainian television while on a visit to Kyiv on October 26, 2004.
On October 28, on the 60th anniversary of the Red Army driving Nazi forces out of Ukraine, Putin stood alongside Yanukovych as a Soviet-styled military parade marched past their podium in central Kyiv.
Putin with Yanukovych in Kyiv on October 28, 2004.
The solemn mood atop the podium was famously broken when Yanukovych turned to offer his Russian guests candy that he had brought in his pockets. Putin refused the offer, while Dmitry Medvedev -- then chief of staff of the Kremlin -- popped one of the treats into his mouth.
A military parade through central Kyiv on October 28, 2004.
In September 2004, Yushchenko went for dinner at the home of Volodymyr Satsyuk, the deputy head of Ukraine’s intelligence agency. Soon afterwards, Yushchenko became severely ill.
It was later determined he had ingested purified dioxin. When Yushchenko eventually emerged from hospital, disfigured by the poison, a journalist recalled, “I remember that feeling of shock, when you see a completely different person.” Yushchenko implied his poisoning was a state-sponsored attack and accused Russia of impeding efforts to investigate it.
Images of Viktor Yushchenko in file photos taken in July (left) and November 2004.
Satsyuk, whose involvement in the poisoning has never been proven, moved to Russia in 2007, stepping into the role of major general in the country's Federal Security Service (FSB).
Later in the same month in which Yushchenko was poisoned, Yanukovych stepped out of a bus to meet with university students in Ivano-Frankivsk. After an object struck Yanukovych’s jacket, he winced then collapsed and was bundled into a car by aides who sped him to a nearby hospital. The politician's team described it as an attack with a "hard object,” and released a video of the presidential candidate looking pained as he denounced the assault from a hospital bed. Video later emerged showing it was a single egg, thrown by a student, that had prompted the politician to collapse dramatically onto the road.
Soldiers of Ukraine's presidential regiment cast their votes at a polling station in Kyiv on October 31, 2004.
The first round of the presidential election in Ukraine took place on October 31, 2004. Yushchenko received 39.9 percent of the vote, while Yanukovych received 39.2 percent. With both candidates failing to secure more than 50 percent, a runoff was scheduled.
A municipal worker removes orange ribbons, the campaign colour of presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko, from trees in Kyiv on November 20, the day before the runoff vote. Campaigning is prohibited on the eve of elections in Ukraine.
On November 21, the second round of elections took place. The Central Election Commission of Ukraine announced that, after counting 33 percent of the ballots, Viktor Yanukovych was in the lead with more than 50 percent of the votes. Early results from exit polls on the other hand were showing Yushchenko in the lead. Meanwhile, foreign observers reported multiple violations in the vote-counting procedure.
Ukraine's Central Election Commission head Serhiy Kivalov passes a screen with preliminary results of the presidential run-off vote early on November 22, 2004.
A day after the vote, the election commission had processed 97.67 percent of the votes, after which its work unexpectedly ground to a halt. For more than a week, the country remained on tenterhooks awaiting the official results. The head of the commission, Serhiy Kivalov, announced that the delay was caused by various technical issues, including problems with the computer servers. Supporters of Yushchenko claimed the delay was designed to give the Yanukovych camp a chance to steal the election.
Viktor Yushchenko greets his supporters during a rally in Kyiv on November 22, 2004.
On the night of November 21-22, Yushchenko met with Kivalov. After their conversation behind closed doors, Yushchenko declared, "we do not trust the Central Election Commission's results.” He called on supporters to “come to the Maidan and defend our victory," referring to Kyiv's Independence Square, which has often been the focal point of protests during periods of political upheaval in Ukraine.
Supporters of Yushchenko carry a tent to be pitched in central Kyiv on November 22.
On the morning of November 22, a small number of protestors gathered in central Kyiv under the orange flags of Yushchenko’s campaign. As the day wore on, the numbers began to swell.
Riot police guarding the entrance of the presidential office in central Kyiv on November 24, 2004.
By midday on November 22, the election commission announced that, with 99 percent of the votes tallied, Yanukovych had won 49.4 percent, with 46.7 percent for Yushchenko. Congratulations rolled in from Belarus and Russia, with Putin declaring that "the Ukrainian people have made their choice -- a choice in favor of stability and strengthening of statehood."
Washington refused to accept the official results, with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell warning of unspecified “consequences” for the Ukrainian officials involved in “perpetrating fraud” in the election.
Ukrainian policemen face Yushchenko supporters outside the government buildings in Kyiv on December 1, 2004.
Protests under the orange flags of Yushchenko's campaign continued throughout Ukraine and crowds surrounded the presidential buildings in Kyiv. On some days, as many as half a million people gathered on Independence Square in freezing weather.
Yushchenko's team highlighted results in the the Donetsk and Luhansk regions where they claimed neither observers nor journalists were allowed into the polling stations after polls had closed, and there was a late surge of votes nearly exclusively for Yanukovych.
A poster declaring "Yanukovych, president of Ukraine" in Donetsk on November 30, 2004.
On December 3, the Supreme Court of Ukraine declared the results of the runoff were invalid, and set a date for a further contest between the two candidates on December 26, 2004.
Supporters of Viktor Yushchenko gather on the Maidan on December 26, 2004.
On January 10, 2005, the Central Electoral Commission announced the official election results with Viktor Yushchenko receiving a majority of votes. On January 23, 2005, he was inaugurated as the third president of Ukraine.
The following year, however, in August 2006, Viktor Yanukovych became the prime minister and in 2010 he was voted into power as president.
Yushchenko would end up in fifth place in that election, receiving less than 5 1/2 percent of the votes following a 2005-2010 presidency that many Ukrainians felt failed to deliver on its promises of reform and steps toward integrating Ukraine into NATO and the EU.
In 2014, Yanukovych was ousted by the monthslong Euromaidan protests that erupted on Kyiv’s Independence Square over high-level corruption and his decision to scrap plans for a major trade deal with the EU and forge closer ties with Russia instead.