Ukraine's Prime Minister and one of the main challengers for this fall presidential election, Viktor Yanukovych, is seen during his interview to the Associated Press in his cabinet office in Kiev, Ukraine, July 15, 2004. More than a dozen years after it became independent amid the Soviet Union's collapse, Ukraine _ sprawled between an expanding Europe and a resurgent Russia, held in check by backsliding democracy and burgeoning corruption _ stands at a crossroads as the Oct. 31 presidential election approaches. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)