The party Friday formed a parliamentary coalition with two other leftist parties and nominated its leader as prime minister following the collapse last week of Our Ukraine's coalition with the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and the Socialists over the surprise election of Socialist leader Oleksandr Moroz as parliamentary speaker.
"We have no doubt that the tone of our relations should be changed, and we can correct everything before we reach the point of no return," Viktor Yanukovych told a news conference after visiting the Russian Embassy in Kiev.
If his candidacy is approved by President Viktor Yushchenko, Yanukovych will become Ukraine's next prime minister. He was the incumbent president's main challenger in 2004 polls, but lost in a rerun following mass-scale protests that came to be known as the "orange revolution." He also served as premier in 2002-2004 under Yushchenko's predecessor, Leonid Kuchma.
Our Ukraine said Monday that the Socialist Party had officially withdrawn from the "orange" coalition.
