KIEV, Feb. 16 – Arseniy Yatseniuk, a former Parliamentary speaker, has increased his rating to become the third-most popular leader in Ukraine and one of the favorites ahead of the next presidential election, polls suggest.

The rise of Yatseniuk comes as his main rivals, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, have showed disappointing performance and may get further losses due to escalating economic crisis.

Yatseniuk, 34, once President Viktor Yushchenko’s favorite, showed his pro-Western stance while the foreign minister in 2007, and proved his liberal economic background as acting governor of the National Bank of Ukraine in 2004.

“I have a political ambition,” Yatseniuk said in a statement on Monday. “It’s not about changing the National Bank, but about changing the entire country.”

Yatseniuk’s rating rose sharply to 10.1% of all respondents surveyed in early February, up from 0.8% in January 2008, according to a poll released by FOM-Ukraine, a polling agency.

“It’s a phenomenon,” Oleksandr Bukhalov, the head of FOM-Ukraine, said Monday while releasing the poll results.

Tymoshenko’s rating was reported at 17.5%, while Yanukovych, the leader of the opposition Regions Party, was backed by 20.4%, according to FOM-Ukraine.

Less popular leaders include Communist Party chief Petro Symonenko (4.7%), Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn (3.7%) and Yushchenko (1.9%), according to the poll.

Another polling agency, Sofia, released similar findings on Monday.

Yatseniuk’s rating rose to 11.8% in early February, according to Sofia, while Tymoshenko’s rating was reported at 15.3% and Yanukovych at 24.2%.

Others have been trailing behind, including Lytvyn (5.2%), Symonenko (4.6%) and Yushchenko (3%), according to Sofia.

Both polling agencies suggest that Yanukovych would defeat Tymoshenko in the runoff, reversing earlier findings that Tymoshenko would easily beat the Regions party leader.

The changes apparently represent the first fallout from the economic crisis that has been hitting Ukraine hard since October 2008 and now widening budget deficit, increasing unemployment and boosting consumer prices.

Among Ukraine’s all political leaders, Yatseniuk has the best balance between those who trust him and those who don’t, an important measure of the candidate’s capacity to win the election.

Yatseniuk is one of two potential candidates that enjoy overall positive balance, at 14%, followed by Lytvyn’s 7.9%, according to FOM-Ukraine.

All other political leaders showed a negative overall balance, including Yanukovych (minus 0.9%), Symonenko (minus 2.6%), Tymoshenko (6.4%) and Yushchenko (minus 38.5%), the poll showed.

The latest polls also make it increasingly unlikely for Yushchenko to run for the re-election in January 2010, with his supporters potentially supporting Yatseniuk, analysts said.

FOM-Ukraine polled 2,000 respondents between February 1 and February 11, with margin of error at 2.2%.

Sofia polled 2,018 respondents between February 3 and February 12, with margin of error at 2.2%. (tl/ez)