Viktor Yushchenko launched the process of total Ukrainization, advocated close ties with NATO and a definitive break with Russia Two decades ago, on January 23, 2005, Viktor Yushchenko was inaugurated as president of Ukraine. He was the first Ukrainian leader to rise to power through mass protests – this happened during the Orange Revolution, which shook the country in November 2004. Yushchenko had initially lost the presidential election, but his supporters set up a tent city in central Kiev