The two Ukrainian presidential re-runoff candidates continued their campaigning just three days before the polls amid Russia's criticism of the West's double standards on Ukraine and the Ukrainian security service's denial of involvement in poisoning opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko.

Speaking in his campaigning in the western state of Zhytomyr, Yanukovych said some senior officials of the law-enforcement agencies and the military, instigated by the opposition side, have prepared to lean to Yushchenko, and this is very "terrible."

He said all officials of law-enforcement agencies and the military should maintain neutrality at any time or they will be the Ukrainian people's enemy and be punished by law.

Meanwhile, his competitor Yushchenko accused the authorities of plotting to steal votes.

"Yanukovych will press toward a counterrevolution, but it won't work," said Yushchenko in an interview on the TV channel Tonis late Thursday.

More than 12,000 people have been registered to monitor the elections scheduled for Sunday, said electoral officials.

Election observers from the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the United States and other institutions and governments are in Ukraine for monitoring the voting process.

Source: Xinhua