Ukraine's 'Iron lady' Tymoshenko: Bruised but Unbowed

Glamorous revolutionary or calculating and corrupt? From the podium to prison and back again, Ukraine's ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko is a polarizing political figure whose steely ambition has not been swayed by the scandals that have dogged her career.

Fresh from three years in prison, the highly-divisive Tymoshenko hopes to rise again following the ouster of the man who jailed her, Viktor Yanukovych, and finally secure the presidential office for herself.

The 53-year-old declared Thursday she would take part in May 25 elections, even as she was mired in a fresh scandal over leaked telephone conversations she claims were manipulated by Moscow.

Tymoshenko made a triumphant return from jail in February on the same day that her arch-foe Yanukovych was toppled after three months of bloody street protests that left around 100 people dead.

Wan, weary and in a wheelchair due to a back injury, the heroine of the 2004 Orange Revolution was nonetheless unbowed by the experience, showing she had not lost her charisma and penchant for fiery rhetoric.

"The dictatorship has fallen," she said in a statement upon her release, later giving a tearful address to protesters on Independence Square in Kiev.

However she received a guarded reception from the crowd, many of whom have grown wary of the allegations swirling around the once-beloved opposition figure over her ties to the corrupt elite.

With a steely temperament that has been compared to former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, Tymoshenko is known at home as the "iron lady" or simply by the Ukrainian word for "she" -- "vona".

Her many supporters see her as an unflinching defender of Ukrainian sovereignty and its European future in a country whose angst over whether it should move closer to Moscow or the West sparked the current political crisis.

But with pro-Russian Yanukovych gone and the emergence of a host of new opposition figures who led the Kiev protests, Tymoshenko's shot at the presidency may have been diluted.

An opinion poll published Wednesday by a mix of think-tanks and research groups showed Tymoshenko would likely only score eight percent if the election were held now, placing her third behind chocolate baron Petro Poroshenko and former boxing champion Vitaly Klitschko.

Tymoshenko also has to battle a past chequered with controversy and accusations of personal enrichment and dodgy deals.

"Considering how many Ukrainians profoundly mistrust and/or detest her, and considering that Poroshenko's rating is three times hers, I find it difficult to imagine how she can become the frontrunner in the next two months," professor of political science at New York's Rutgers University, Oleksandr Motyl told Agence France Presse.

Fresh controversy quickly found her after her release, when Russian television broadcast a tape where Tymoshenko is heard urging the "wiping out" of Russians over Moscow's unrecognized absorption of the Crimea peninsula.

She acknowledges that the voice on the tape was hers, but maintains that the recordings were manipulated.

Born in the industrial city of Dnipropetrovsk in central Ukraine, Tymoshenko -- then a striking brunette -- made a fortune in the energy industry, landing her the nickname "gas princess".

She later forayed into politics, becoming a deputy prime minister under the presidency of Leonid Kuchma in 1999 before being fired in 2001 after they fell out. She was briefly imprisoned then on gas smuggling charges that were later quashed.

Tymoshenko became a star of the 2004 Orange Revolution uprising that forced the annulment of elections initially awarded to Yanukovych, crafting a very different and now-iconic look.

In a softened image which belies her tough interior, she began wearing her hair in an elaborately braided golden crown reminiscent of a feminine, folksy princess of yore.

She became prime minister in 2005 but political squabbling saw her popularity wane and she lost a bitterly-contested 2010 presidential election to Yanukovych.

In what she maintains was an attempt to eliminate her from politics, Tymoshenko was in October 2011 sentenced to seven years in jail over a 2009 gas deal signed with Russia during her premiership.

Her jailing prompted anger in the West and a crisis in Ukraine's relations with the European Union.

She was thrust back into the spotlight when protests erupted against Yanukovych's decision in November to back out of an Association Agreement with the European Union under pressure from Russia.

Even from her detention in a prison hospital she rallied protesters to stay strong and oust her nemesis.

"None of the other politicians that intend to run for president understand the depth of the lawlessness gripping Ukraine," Tymoshenko said Thursday as she announced her candidacy.

She is married to businessman Olexandr Tymoshenko, who has now taken asylum in the Czech Republic. Her British-educated daughter Yevgenia has become one of the greatest defenders of her mother, with whom she bears a striking resemblance.