More than two thousand troops were en route to the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Saturday, as fears of a military intevention rose in the former Soviet republic, according to DPA. Combat formations containing a total 2,050 soldiers were travelling by lorry from several bases in the country, and could arrive in Kiev as early Saturday evening or during Sunday, said general Oleksander Kikhtenko, Ukraine Interior Ministry troop commander. All the lorry columns were halted, pending further instructions, he said. Columns were reported idling on the side of the road in rural districts of the Odessa, Poltava, and Zaporizhia provinces. News of the troop movements came one day after President Viktor Yushchenko threatened to send troops to "restore order" to the capital Kiev. The pro-Europe Yushchenko has been locked in a long-running battle with his political nemesis, pro-Russia Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, over the legality of early parliamentary elections called by Yushchenko, and move's by Yanukovich's coalition to dominate parliament. The conflict came to a head earlier this week when pro-Yanukovich police led by Interior Ministry head broke into the Prosecutor General's office in Kiev, to bring back to his desk a pro-Yanukovich Prosecutor General Yushchenko had sacked. The troop movements, carried out in broad daylight and easily halted by pro-Yanukovich MPs flagging the columns down, appeared to be a pressure tactic by Yushchenko to force the pro-Yanukovich police to evacuate the Prosecutor General's office, in order to avoid a confrontation with combat troops.
