(Guardian) Ukrainians go to the polls today for the fifth time in three years in a last-ditch bid to haul the country out of political crisis and the stalemate of the two Viktors . The election was called early to end a deadlock that has seen forces loyal to Premier Viktor Yanukovych pitted against President Viktor Yushchenko , elected following the 2004 Orange Revolution mass protests.
The coloured flags were competing for space across the cities of Europe's second largest nation this weekend. At the famed Potemkin Steps, where the port of Odessa fans out beside the Black Sea, it was the boys in blue showing the biggest force.