AFP/Donetsk, Ukraine

The arrival of hundreds of Georgians in Ukraine purportedly to monitor elections spiralled into a major row yesterday after a party accused them of being special forces sent to disrupt the polls.

The Regions Party of presidential frontrunner Viktor Yanukovich has protested vehemently over the sudden arrival of hundreds of male Georgians “built like sportsmen” in the eastern city of Donetsk over the last days.

Tbilisi insists they are observers who Ukraine refused to accredit but the Donetsk authorities have said there is evidence they were sent to carry out fraud on behalf of Yanukovich’s main rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

“All these people have corresponding training not in line with the duties of international observers in elections,” Regions Party MP Vladislav Lukyanov said in a statement released by Regions Party headquarters. “These are fighters specialised in carrying out actions to destabilise elections.”

Yanukovich himself meanwhile appealed to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to withdraw the “so-called” observers.

“It is unacceptable that a foreign state interferes in the affairs of our country,” he said.

The head of Donetsk city council Nikolai Levchenko said they were all men aged between 25-45 and “built like sportsmen”.

But Georgia’s ambassador to Ukraine, Grigol Katamadze, said the Ukrainian supreme court had ordered that the observers be registered.

Reports said that Georgia had been seeking to accredit some 2,000 observers. The central election commission has accredited a total of 3,149 observers from around the world.

Election fraud in Ukraine remains a major issue after the supreme court ordered a re-run of the last presidential elections in 2004 after discovering mass vote-rigging in favour of Yanukovich.

Donetsk, a heavy industry and mining region, is a political stronghold of Yanukovich but analysts have said it will be crucial for Tymoshenko to win votes here if she is to make a serious challenge for the presidency.