Thousands of Ukrainians massed in central Kiev on Monday to protest against alleged fraud in parliamentary elections won by the ruling party as the opposition threatened not to recognize the new legislature.

At least 2,000 opposition supporters carrying Ukrainian flags gathered outside the headquarters of the central election commission amid a heavy presence of elite Berkut anti-riot police, an Agence France Presse correspondent said.

Ukraine's ruling party was set Monday to beat the allies of jailed ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko in legislative elections that observers condemned as a setback for the ex-Soviet state's nascent democracy.

Prime Minister Mykola Azarov predicted that the Regions Party had won an outright majority in Sunday's ballot following a disappointing performance by another opposition group led by world heavyweight boxer Vitaly Klitschko.

Ukraine's ruling party on Monday claimed victory in weekend elections as early results showed it withstanding the challenge by allies of ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko whose jailing last year sparked global concern.

Prime Minister Mykola Azarov expressed confidence the ruling Regions Party would win the majority of seats in the new parliament after Sunday's vote that the West saw as a huge test for Ukraine's democracy amid the furore caused by the imprisonment of Tymoshenko.

Ukraine's ruling party was set to win the most votes in legislative elections on Sunday but faced a strong challenge from the party of ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko whose jailing sparked Western concerns of foul play.

The elections for the 450-seat Verkhovna Rada were a huge test for Ukraine's fragile democracy and already overshadowed by the imprisonment of Tymoshenko who has now spent over a year in jail for abuse of power while in office.

Ukraine's security service said Friday it was conducting a formal check into the disappearance of a Russian opposition activist who claimed to have been abducted from Ukraine by Russian agents.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said in a statement that it was looking into the "urgent departure" of Leonid Razvozzhayev, who is now in a Moscow prison after being charged with plotting mass riots.

An opposition member of Russia's parliament claimed on Saturday that a Russian anti-Putin activist has been kidnapped from the United Nations refugee office in Ukraine.

The activist, Leonid Razvozzhaev, is being sought by a Russian committee inquiring into "preparation for the organisation of mass riots."

A Ukrainian court Monday once again delayed the new trial of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko on embezzlement and tax evasion charges until after crucial parliamentary polls.

A judge in the eastern city of Kharkiv, where the former prime minister is already serving a seven-year sentence after her conviction last October on abuse of power charges, said he could not hear the case in Tymoshenko's absence and set the next hearing for November 13.

Jailed ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko on Saturday urged Ukrainians to oust President Viktor Yanukovych's government in legislative elections next month, in a video message recorded in detention.

Tymoshenko's lawyers recorded the wobbly hand-held video at the hospital in the eastern city of Kharkiv where she has for the last few months stayed for treatment on chronic back pains.

It wasn't exactly Prince Charming but one of Ukraine's "Sleeping Beauties" finally got a kiss on the lips as she dozed on a dais filmed by cameras -- though unlike the fairy tale she never woke up.

"I'm not sure I would marry precisely this girl, I just was curious whether she would open her eyes," said the young woman who dared the embrace while male visitors shied away.

Ukraine's jailed ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko urged European powers to help free her country from its "dictator" President Viktor Yanukovych, speaking in an interview published Monday.

Tymoshenko, whose incarceration is seen by most Western powers as politically motivated, said the Ukrainian opposition and European nations must act now, ahead of October 28 general elections.