Ukraine's Tymoshenko to Run for President as 100,000 Russian Troops Near Ukraine

Ukraine's divisive opposition icon Yulia Tymoshenko completed an improbable return to politics Thursday by announcing plans to contest snap polls to replace the ousted pro-Russian president whose regime sent her to jail.

"I intend to run for president of Ukraine," the 53-year-old told reporters after gingerly walking into a press room with the help of a walking stick she uses due to chronic back pain.

The brief but dramatic announcement encapsulates the spectacular changes that have swept the economically struggling and culturally splintered ex-Soviet state of 46 million in the past few weeks.

The country is due to hold a presidential election on May 25 after the ouster of pro-Kremlin leader Viktor Yanukovych last month, the culmination of three months of pro-EU protests.

Tymoshenko -- one of the most charismatic and outspoken leaders of Ukraine's 2004 pro-democracy Orange Revolution -- lost a close presidential poll to Yanukovych in 2010 after heading two pro-Western cabinets that became embroiled in internal squabbles and eventually lost popular support.

Her political downfall after the 2010 vote was rapid and seemingly fatal.

Yanukovych's government quickly launched a series of criminal probes against his rival that led to a controversial trial over Tymoshenko's role in agreeing a 2009 gas contract with Russia that many Ukrainians thought came at too high a price.

Tymoshenko was convicted in October 2011 for abuse of power and sentenced to a seven-year jail term that Western nations denounced as a brazen show of selective justice.

But she emerged triumphantly from the state hospital in which she had spent most of her sentence under guard on February 22 -- the day parliament ousted Yanukovych for his role in the deaths of nearly 100 protesters that month.

Tymoshenko immediately went to the protest square in the heart of Kiev that also played the central role in the 2004 pro-democracy revolt.

But the crowd's reception was guarded on this occasion -- a sign of the wariness among many of the ugly corruption allegations that have stained Tymoshenko's reputation in recent years.

Some analysts believe the pro-Western movement that Tymoshenko once headed is now looking to a new generation of leaders who played a more prominent role in the latest protests and who hold key positions in the new interim government.

"Her support has slipped significantly since 2010," said Valeriy Chaly of the Razumov political research center.

"People like (Prime Minister Arseniy) Yatsenyuk have proven themselves to be very capable."

Tymoshenko on Thursday attempted to paint herself as a compromise figure who could look after the interests of her old supporters while reassuring Russian speakers who have traditionally relied on the Kremlin for support.

"I will be able to find a common language with everyone who lives in the east," Tymoshenko said before adding that she still viewed Russian President Vladimir Putin as "Ukraine's enemy number one".

Critics have long accused Tymoshenko of being a political chameleon who lacked ideals and frequently changed positions in her thirst for power.

Putin has famously said he viewed Tymoshenko as a trusted partner with whom he could do business despite her seeming allegiance to closer ties with the West.

Tymoshenko on Thursday vowed to commit herself to breaking the close links between big business and government that have allowed a select group of tycoons and political insiders to enrich themselves through shadowy deals.

"I stand out from all the other presidential candidates because I will actually be able to do this: I will be able to break up these huge clan-like corporations," she said.

Tymoshenko has considerable ground to make up if she hopes to win the election. An opinion poll published Wednesday by four respected Ukrainian research firms put her in third place with just over eight percent of the prospective vote.

Chocolate baron Petro Poroshenko ranked first with the backing of almost a quarter of respondents.

Former boxing champion turned opposition leader Vitali Klitschko was second with almost nine percent.

But some analysts said Tymoshenko still had the political wherewithal to mount a powerful challenge that should at least secure her a place in a second-round runoff.

"Tymoshenko knows how to wage a political campaign," said Kiev's Global Strategies Institute director Vadym Karasyov.

"It is much too premature to speak of a clear winner in this election."

Also in Ukraine, nearly 100,000 Russian forces have massed on the country's border, a top Ukrainian defense official told an American audience Thursday, giving a number far higher than U.S. military estimates.

"Almost 100,000 soldiers are stationed on the borders of Ukraine and in the direction ... of Kharkiv, Donetsk, " Andriy Parubiy, chairman of Ukraine's national security council, said via a webcast from Kiev.

"Russian troops are not in Crimea only, they are along all Ukrainian borders. They're in the south, they're in the east and in the north," Parubiy said.

After its intervention in the Crimean peninsula, Russia is plotting to foment separatist sentiment elsewhere and Kiev fears a possible incursion in the country's east, he told the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank.

Parubiy said any day "we might see a huge attack on the territory of continental Ukraine and we are getting ready for it."

Although U.S. defense officials have put the number of Russian troops closer to 20,000, a U.S. lawmaker said Thursday that much stronger Russian forces had deployed towards Ukraine's border.

"Over the past week we've seen the buildup of up to 80,000 additional Russian troops," Representative Mike Turner said in a statement.

Turner said the force included large numbers of armored vehicles, battle tanks, artillery, helicopters and planes.

The Republican lawmaker accused the White House of withholding "critical" information about the full scope of Russian troop movements and demanded the administration reveal what it knows to help "vulnerable allies."

Pentagon officials previously have said more than 20,000 Russian troops -- including airborne units and armored vehicles -- have deployed along Ukraine's border, a force big enough to seize control of the eastern region.

But a senior defense official expressed skepticism at Parubiy's estimate of Russian troop strength.

"That sounds too high," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

Russia has assured Washington that the Russian forces were there to carry out a "spring" exercise but the Pentagon on Thursday acknowledged there was no indication of any drill underway.

"We've seen no specific indications that exercises are taking place," spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters.

He declined to discuss U.S. intelligence assessments on the possibility of a Russian attack into eastern Ukraine but said the military presence only served to aggravate tensions.

Kirby said that "regardless of the intent it does nothing to de-escalate the tension in Ukraine.

"It does nothing to improve the stability in that part of the world."

Parubiy said the Ukrainian government supported moves by Western countries to impose punitive sanctions on Russia and appealed for a public display of military partnership to send a signal to Moscow over its actions.

"We are calling on our partners to hold a common military exercise" that would "show that the cooperation and partnership is still there," he said through an interpreter.

He urged "visible support, visible presence of our partners" at this moment of crisis.

The Russian troops that have deployed in Crimea were well-trained special forces, he said.

After Russia's takeover of Crimea, Moscow had launched a new strategy aimed at disrupting Ukraine's upcoming presidential elections in May, according to Parubiy.

Kiev authorities had "arrested" separatist leaders in the east and Moscow's attempts to provoke street demonstrations were faltering with fewer people turning out for the protests, he said.

U.S. President Barack Obama and NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen have both denounced Moscow's incursion into Crimea but have called for a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

NATO has bolstered its presence in Eastern Europe since Russia's intervention, deploying radar surveillance aircraft to the area while Washington has sent F-16 fighter jets to Poland.

Obama has ruled out military action in Ukraine, which is not a member of the NATO alliance.