Yulia Tymoshenko needed a simple majority to be voted in as the Ukrainian Parliament's new prime minister. On Friday, February 4th 2005, she got that and more. She not only received the necessary 226 votes; she received all 373.

The biggest ally behind her unanimous vote: The Ukraine's new president Viktor Yushchenko.

The Ukrainian parliament's approval of their 44 year-old "warrior princess" gives her the number two position in "Borderland's" new, Western-oriented government which is struggling for democracy.

Last month, Yushchenko, a Western-leaning politician, promised to steer Ukraine away from "all evil" and into the European Union after taking the oath of office in Ukraine's parliament. Yushchenko, who was allegedly poisoned last September by political rivals, initially lost to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych on the November 21st vote. However, Yushchenko won the rerun vote on December 26th after the Supreme Court annulled the first election. Yulia Tymoshenko helped lead the charge in support of Yushchenko's victory.

Recently, the internally handsome fifty year-old President Yushchenko told CNN Reporter, Christiane Amanpour, on assignment for Sixty Minutes:

When I heard that millions of people are praying for me, it went straight to my heart. But I also felt an obligation to live.

To die is not very original. But to live and to carry on, that's special.

People cry when they see my face.

But my country has also been disfugured. Now we will bring both back to health.

Outgoing U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell also pledged to help Ukraine, a land which is slightly smaller than the state of Texas. Yushchenko told Powell the triumph of democracy would not "have been possible without our partners who share the same democratic values as we do, in which I include President Bush and you."

Those who voted for her have expressed their support for their new prime minister. However, she will have work to do in winning over the support of all of her people. She is either vehemently loved or hated by the 48 million people who live today in the former Soviet republic.

While her radical calls to overthrow then-President Leonid Kuchma's government during last year's protests won her respect among millions of opposition supporters, many in Ukraine's Russian-dominated east call her hard-line and often divisive in a Western-oriented government.

On Wednesday, Tymoshenko broke with tradition and sent to parliament the outline of a five-year government program that includes free health care.

Ukraine which means "Borderland" is located in Eastern Europe

Mr. Yushchenko, who came to parliament's chamber to personally ask them to support his choice for Ukraine's No. 2 job.

Ms. Yushchenko told legislators before the vote:

I trust her to organize the work of the government.

Millions of people on Independence Square put their faith in her, in us.

Before the vote, Ms. Tymoshenko defined the broad goals of her government's program. She emphasized the importance of "justice" in every aspect of Ukrainian life. Ms. Tymoshenko also called for raising living standards, fighting corruption and separating business from power.

Yushchenko is confident that public doubts about Tymoshenko will fade; "Time is the best doctor," he said in Davos Switzerland at the World Economic Forum last week.

People "must feel that life is becoming steadier," Tymoshenko says.

"Once they acquire new opportunities, all the fears and confrontations will collapse like a house of cards."

Inspire & Be Inspired.

Here's to healthy, adventuresome, soulful "tearing down the walls and opening the borders" living!

~ Jennifer Carolyn King

Above photo credits: AP Photographer, Sergei Grits