Profile: Viktor Yushchenko

Mrs Tymoshenko and Mr Yushchenko were once close allies

Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko - the one-time hero of the so-called "Orange Revolution" - has seen his public support plummet to single figures in what has been a dramatic turnaround in his political fortunes.

His decision to dissolve parliament and call snap elections - the second such move in two years - is the latest chapter of his prolonged power struggle with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a key ally during the mass street protests in 2004 that swept the pro-Western coalition to power.

The president accuses Mrs Tymoshenko of destroying the coalition through her "thirst for power" and siding with main opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych from the Russia-leaning Party of Regions - a claim denied by Mrs Tymoshenko.

The "all-out political war" - blamed by analysts on manoeuvring ahead of presidential elections scheduled for next year - has derailed Mr Yushchenko's reform plans, leaving a large majority of voters deeply distrustful of Ukraine's political heavyweights.

It also appears that Mr Yushchenko - who was the country's most popular politician only four years ago - has become the biggest victim of the prolonged political tug-of-war.

Economic stewardship

Once a cautious and loyal technocrat, Mr Yushchenko took over the presidency in January 2005, promising to deliver radical political change.

His triumph followed the cancellation of Mr Yanukovych's official victory, which observers said had been rigged.

Trained as an accountant, he drew Western admiration after leading some of Ukraine's bravest reform efforts in President Leonid Kuchma's quarrelsome governments in the 1990s.

Later he broke ranks with Mr Kuchma to form his Our Ukraine opposition bloc.

Mr Yushchenko says his poisoning in 2004 nearly killed him. Despite some improvement by 2008, scars on his face are still clearly visible.

For many he represented a historic chance to forge new ties between Ukraine and the West.

Mr Yushchenko is not a "Zapadenets" - a native of western Ukraine, where pro-Europe and anti-Russian sentiment is strongest and where he now enjoys the highest support.

In fact, he was born in the Sumy region of north-eastern Ukraine, on the border with Russia, in 1954.

He hails from an agricultural and predominantly Ukrainian-speaking area. In that respect he differs from many of his opponents, whose native tongue is Russian.

After university he pursued a financial career, starting as a village accountant and then gradually moving to much higher posts in the former Soviet Ukraine's banking system. In 1993 he became head of the national bank of the newly independent Ukraine.

Under his guidance, Ukraine moved from hyperinflation and surrogate money to the hryvnya - the country's own, fairly stable currency.

From ally to opponent

After managing to reduce the impact of the Russian debt default in 1998, Mr Yushchenko was appointed Ukrainian prime minister by President Kuchma.

As the country's economy improved, with salaries and pensions paid on time and corruption reduced, nobody doubted the prime minister's loyalty to the president.

The liberal and nationalist opposition urged him to become their leader, but Mr Yushchenko remained, at least officially, on the presidential side.

However, his popularity across the country sharply contrasted with Mr Kuchma's tiny ratings, and in 2001 the president dismissed him, staking all on the support of industrial groups based in eastern Ukraine and Moscow.

Freed from the forced alliance with the president, Mr Yushchenko soon accepted the opposition leadership offer.

He became head of the Our Ukraine bloc, which at the next parliamentary election managed to gain enough votes to seriously challenge the authorities.

Scarred

Mr Yushchenko started the 2004 presidential campaign as Ukraine's most popular politician, and it took an enormous propaganda effort on state-run TV channels to make his rival, Prime Minister Yanukovych, look like a real contender.

There were numerous attempts to discredit Mr Yushchenko, but nothing had a greater impact than his poisoning, which left scars and blisters on his face weeks before the crucial vote.

His team said it was yet another dirty trick by his opponents.

Throughout the Orange Revolution protests, Mr Yushchenko made it clear that it was a "velvet revolution" against the Moscow-influenced elite that he had in mind.

He often referred to Georgia's example - the mass protests that swept Mikhail Saakashvili to power without bloodshed in 2003.