Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a colorful politician, has, according to exit polls, lost Sunday's presidential election runoff in Ukraine.

Born in Dnepropetrovsk in eastern Ukraine, Tymoshenko, 49, is a fearless fighter not deprived of pragmatism, and, many experts think, a leader that can make masses follow her.

Tymoshenko was a businesswoman in the 1980s, her business having to do with video clubs. In the early 1990s she became the head of a gasoline company and in 1995 president of Ukraine's Unified Energy System corporation, a key importer of Russian natural gas to Ukraine in 1996. She was dubbed "a gas princess."

In the late 1990s she became a deputy prime minister in the government of Viktor Yushchenko, who was premier at the time. In 2001 she was dismissed and arrested for a month on accusations of gas smuggling and forging customs documents.

Those events destined her future. Opposition to then president Leonid Kuchma led her to the camp of Yushchenko supporters, and she became a key figure in the "orange revolution" in 2004-2005.

Yushchenko won the 2004 presidential election in a revote after refusing to recognize the election results that saw Viktor Yanukovych win the second round. Yushchenko was backed by the West in his move.

After the victory, Yushchenko suddenly refused to appoint Tymoshenko prime minister, but she made public a secret document in line with which Yushchenko was to appoint her in case he won, and the president had to fulfill his promise.

Tymoshenko's government was dismissed in September 2005 due to increasing opposition between different groups in Yushchenko's entourage.

As for Yanukovych, his rating turned out high after the Orange Revolution unexpectedly, and his opposition Party of Regions won the larger part of votes at the 2006 parliamentary elections. Since then, the party led by Yanukovych has been the largest political force in Ukraine.

Late in 2007 Tymoshenko became premier. The financial crisis that hit Ukraine in late 2008 sent her once high ratings down. The rating of Tymoshenko, who has frequently accused President Yushchenko and other politicians of hindering her efforts on her post, continued to fall throughout 2009, although prior to the crisis it had been higher than Yanukovych's.

KIEV, February (RIA Novosti)