Ukraine"s Orthodox Church criticized president-elect...
"Inviting the Russian patriarch to the inauguration of the president of an independent Ukraine is not quite the right decision," the Dilo paper said on Monday quoting Bishop Yevstratiy, a senior Ukrainian Church official, as saying.
Yanukovych has invited Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, to lead a church service ahead of his inauguration on February 25 in a further indication of his pro-Russian drive.
The bishop said Yanukovych had only won a narrow victory and should have taken more heed to Ukrainian voters who did not support him in two rounds of Ukraine"s presidential election.
Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a leader of the pro-Western "orange revolution" protests that overturned Yanukovych"s tainted election in 2004, was defeated by only 3.48% of the vote in the February 7 runoff. She had moved to challenge the vote results in court, but unexpectedly withdrew a legal appeal last week removing the final obstacle to his inauguration.