Viktor Yanukovych Minister. In November 2009 Yanukovych stated that he conceded defeat only to avoid violence. "I didn't want mothers to lose their children and wives their husbands. I didn't want dead bodies from Kyiv to flow down the Dnipro. I didn't want to assume power through bloodshed." Following his electoral defeat in 2004, Yanukovych led the main opposition party against the Tymoshenko government made up of Yushchenko's Our Ukraine, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, and Oleksandr Moroz's Socialist Party. This government was marred by growing conflict between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko. Yanukovych's Party of Regions support allowed for the establishment of Yuriy Yekhanurov's
Mayor of Kiev mayor of Kiev Leonid Chernovetsky of the office of Head of Kiev City Administration, while still preserving the post of mayor. This led to Chernovetsky being deprived of any official decision-making role and most power in the capital was handed over to the Head of Kiev City Administration. At that time that was Oleksandr Popov who was appointed by President Viktor Yanukovych on 16 November 2010. Before these amendments, the elected mayor of the Kiev City Council was automatically appointed also as head of the Kiev City City Administration. Chernovetsky was not seen in Kiev for several months after Popov's