YENAKIYEVO, Ukraine, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Ukraine's industrial heartland gave its native son Victor Yanukovych an ecstatic welcome after his public mauling by presidential rival Yulia Tymoshenko, hailing him as a hero where she called him a coward.
The 59-year-old ex-mechanic, on the receiving end of Tymoshenko’s scorn when he shunned a TV debate with her this week, won a rapturous reception on a two-day tour of eastern Ukraine.
Thousands of people braved damp and cold to turn out for the tall, beefy Yanukovych in his home town of Yenakiyevo. Smiling broadly, he sailed through a human corridor of supporters waving blue flags of his Regions Party. "I have come here to bow to you, to ask you for strength and your blessing. It is namely here where I spent my best years," he told an audience of the middle-aged and elderly in the Soviet-era "Palace of Culture".
The Russian-speaking steel and mining communities of eastern Ukraine are Yanukovych’s comfort zone. Here, and in the south, he won most support in the first round of voting on Jan. 17.
The adulation was an antidote to the savaging he had from his election rival last Monday.
Yanukovych faces Prime Minister Tymoshenko in a runoff for the presidency on Feb. 7 after a bitter campaign in which the candidates have accused each other of lying.
Tymoshenko branded him a "common coward" after he shunned the TV face-to-face and renewed accusations that he was no more than a "puppet of the oligarchs".
Accusing her of deception, Yanukovych said: "She does not want to admit that everything that has happened to our country is the outcome of her policies. Tymoshenko does not want to be accountable for her actions … The nation is tired of all this twaddle, all these lies and dirt."
His words found an appreciative audience on Tuesday in Yenakiyevo, a strongly pro-Russian town of about 100,000 where many coal mines have shut down and the giant Soviet-era metallurgical plant struggles to keep afloat.
Yenakiyevo, at the heart of the Soviet-era industrial centre known as Donbass, was awash with blue pro-Yanukovych posters.
"BOAR" VS "GAS PRINCESS"?
Tymoshenko, a leader of the 2004 Orange Revolution that denied Yanukovych victory after a rigged election, is popular in the nationalist west of Ukraine and in the centre.
Nationwide, Yanukovych finished just over 10 percentage points ahead of Tymoshenko in the first round. But in the Donbass, he scored 77 percent of votes against her 4 percent.
Workers here, who in Soviet times enjoyed status as the vanguard of the proletariat, are angry at what they see as neglect by Kyiv despite the region’s huge contribution to the state coffers.
Yanukovych’s mantra of "a strong Ukraine which would abstain from any military blocs, be a reliable partner for its neighbours and give the Russian language special status" got rapturous applause in meetings in the Donetsk region.
Tymoshenko has sought to exploit her rival’s two jail terms for theft and assault when he was a young man. She herself spent some time in jail in 2001, accused of forging customs documents and smuggling gas. She was cleared of the charges.
The stylish Tymoshenko is popularly called "the Gas Princess" for earning a fortune in the tumultuous 1990s when she was involved in the often murky natural gas trade with Russia. Many locals — some claiming personal acquaintance with Yanukovych — took umbrage at Tymoshenko’s attacks on him.
"All of us were young and all made mistakes," retired miner Nikolai Selyukov, aged 74, told Reuters. "Tymoshenko herself must have been jailed three times at least. But … she is protected by her billions of dollars."
"This is a woman who has nothing to lose. She will step over bones and dead bodies to get to her final goal," said Alexei Linnik, a 54-year-old miner.
Selyukov who survives on a monthly pension of 3,500 hryvnias ($438) after a lifetime working in the mines, added: "We once worked for the same bus company with Yanukovych, I trust him."
At a gala in Donetsk late on Tuesday, he prepared his supporters "for the final spurt to end this orange nightmare".
But in a reminder of his prison past, a supporter with cropped hair pushed his way through reporters as Yanukovych was heading for the exit, shouting: "Vitya Kaban, can you hear me?"
Vitya is the short form of Viktor, and "kaban", which means boar, was his nickname when he was in prison. Surrounded by bodyguards, Yanukovych passed on without turning round.
