Ukrainians voted Sunday in a knife-edge presidential election held amid high security and watched closely as a test of whether the former Soviet state will turn its face to the West or favour bonds with Russia. Armoured personnel carriers mounted with water cannons guarded Ukraine's central election commission building and machine-gun toting police patrolled Kiev's streets as voters cast ballots amid extraordinary security nation-wide.
Polling stations close at 8 pm (1800 GMT) with exit poll data expected soon thereafter and the first official results anticipated early Monday.
The charged battle pits pro-Russian ruling party candidate Viktor Yanukovich against Western friendly opposition foe Viktor Yushchenko, who seeks to attenuate Moscow's influence here through closer ties to the EU and Nato.
The latest opinion polls put the two in a statistical tie and most experts predicted they would face each other again in a decisive runoff on November 21.
Sunday's vote capped a campaign fraught with intrigue, recriminations from both main camps of cheating and even a charge of attempted assassination by poisoning, unusual even compared to the heated polls in other post-Soviet states.
Highlighting a sense of urgency in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin took the unprecedented step of spending three days at Yanukovich's side in Kiev last week, revealing the personal significance he attaches to the vote here.
Meanwhile Washington and Europe have voiced repeated protests about the state-controlled media's treatment of Yushchenko, with the State Department warning starkly of "measures" against Ukraine if the vote outcome is rigged.
The European Parliament has described the poll as a "moment of truth" for democracy in the country after a decade of rule under outgoing President Leonid Kuchma, whose record on reform and human rights has been mixed at best.
Kuchma downplayed the East-West split in the vote, telling reporters as he cast his ballot that Ukraine's commitment to closer ties with Europe was a strategic priority that would be pursued regardless of who succeeded him.
Nearly one fourth of registered voters had cast their ballots in the first three hours of voting and officials predicted 80 percent turnout in a country where politics are coming to life after generations of stifling Soviet and tsarist Russian rule.
The stakes could hardly be higher for this nation of 48 million people, which has served as an uneasy bridge between Russia and Europe during Kuchma's term in office.
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