KIEV, Ukraine—Yulia Tymoshenko was Ukraine’s most prominent political prisoner, so it seemed a perfect political moment when she was suddenly released from prison on Saturday and sped to Kiev’s main square.
As Ms. Tymoshenko, 53 years old, headed to the square to address the crowds who had just ousted the president, her welcome was hardly one befitting a hero. “Yulia Vladimirovna, remember who made this revolution,” a volunteer security officer admonished her through the window of her car.
“Yulia, don’t let people down,” said another.
Ms. Tymoshenko’s sharp tongue and political savvy made her the face of Ukraine’s 2004 revolution. But during her two stints as prime minister the economy stumbled and she faced allegations of graft and mismanagement.
She denied the allegations, but her rival, Viktor Yanukovych, was elected president.
For many of the thousands of protesters who spent the past three months on Kiev’s main square trying to drive Mr. Yanukovych from office, memories of Ms. Tymoshenko’s tenure were fresh, and they still taint many of the veteran politicians who now seek to lead Ukraine.
A crowd of around one hundred people gathered outside Parliament on Sunday to demand a new crop of leaders.
“We all understand that [politicians] are the same. Swapping one for the other is dangerous,” said Tetyana Karmaiska, a 52-year-old company director who held a poster with an arrow pointing from Ms. Tymoshenko to Mr. Yanukovych and the phrase: “People died for that.”
“We need new people in power. We need a total renewal,” said Inna Andriyishina, a 37-year-old consultant.
Speaking to the thousands on the central square here Saturday, Ms. Tymoshenko gave a characteristically fiery speech, calling on Mr. Yanukovych to come to the square to face the people.
The half-hour speech, which came minutes after an open-air funeral service for protesters killed in the unrest, struck some as being at odds with the somberness of the occasion, even when she appeared to choke back tears to speak of men who died behind flimsy shields.
When she offered an apology on behalf of politicians, saying they “have not been worthy of you” and pledged to change that, pockets of people in the crowd called out: “We don’t believe you!”
“The bodies are not yet cold and they’re already letting off fireworks because Yulia’s been released,” said Svitlana Marchuk, a 33-year-old editor.
Aides said Ms. Tymoshenko, who uses a wheelchair because of back pain and had indicated she would travel abroad for medical treatment, has changed her mind.
On Sunday, she said she wouldn’t put herself forward as a candidate for prime minister.
Still, there were signs she was preparing a political comeback. Her longtime right-hand man, Oleksandr Turchynov, was elected speaker of parliament and confirmed as acting president over the weekend. Ms. Tymoshenko spoke by phone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Füle and Senator John McCain, her party said.
Ms. Tymoshenko style represents the kind of politics that protesters were campaigning against during the three months of demonstrations.
She was a wealthy businesswoman in the 1990s who ran United Energy Systems of Ukraine, a wholesale supplier of Russian gas to Ukrainian companies.
She shot to prominence as a leader of the 2004 Orange Revolution, a street protest that thwarted Mr. Yanukovych’s first run at the presidency.
With her firebrand speeches and blond peasant braid, she became the darling of the crowds. But the pro-Western government, with Viktor Yushchenko as president and Ms. Tymoshenko as prime minister, soon fell into bickering, hampering promised reforms to the country’s sclerotic economy and corrupted administration.
In 2009, she negotiated with Mr. Yanukovych to form a coalition government under which he would be president, elected by parliament, and she would be prime minister. Mr. Yanukovych pulled out of the agreement at the last minute.
At the start of 2010, when Moscow cut the flow of gas to Ukraine over a payment dispute, she flew to Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin, cementing a relationship that protesters now view with suspicion.
“We feel comfortable working with Tymoshenko’s government,” Mr. Putin said at the time.
After losing a close presidential runoff to Mr. Yanukovych, she was jailed for seven years in 2011 on charges of abuse of office in connection with the Russian gas deal.
During her 2½ years in prison her popularity waned and she was eclipsed by other opposition leaders, including boxer-turned politician Vitali Klitschko.
Despite her powerful speeches, energetic campaigning, and steely determination, some say her time may have passed.
“It’s probably not a good thing if she runs,” said one of her advisers.
“But who’s going to tell her?” the adviser said.
Write to James Marson at james.marson@wsj.com
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