KIEV, Ukraine - Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko celebrated his insurmountable lead today in the re-run of Ukraine's presidential election, thanking protesters who spent weeks camped out in the capital's frigid streets for helping secure his win and the nation's freedom.

Three exit polls gave him a 15 to 20 percentage point lead over pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. The official vote count gave the Western-leaning Yushchenko a 52.3 percent to 43.9 percent lead with ballots from 98.5 percent of precincts counted in Sunday's voting.

While Yushchenko had already declared himself the winner, Yanukovych had not conceded defeat. Nestor Shufrych, a lawmaker and Yanukovych ally, told reporters the Yanukovych campaign would appeal the results.

"Now, today, the Ukrainian people have won. I congratulate you," Yushchenko told a jubilant crowd in Kiev's Independence Square, the center of massive protests following the Nov. 21 presidential runoff that was annulled after fraud allegations.

"We have been independent for 14 years but we were not free," Yushchenko said. "Now we are facing an independent and free Ukraine."

Results were trickling in slowly from two regions in pro-Yanukovych territory in eastern Ukraine. Central Election Commission chairman Yaroslav Davydovych urged election workers to do their jobs. "Put political issues aside. The state is waiting for results," he said.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, whose own accession to power on a wave of peaceful protest in November 2003 inspired Ukraine's opposition, congratulated Yushchenko in a Ukrainian-language message delivered over Ukrainian television. Saakashvili, who attended law school in then-Soviet Ukraine, apparently is first foreign leader to publicly recognize Yushchenko's victory.

Poland's former President Lech Walesa told the Polish news agency PAP that Yushchenko's victory meant "Ukraine on its road to freedom and democracy made a small move towards Europe."

International observers praised the vote as calm and orderly.

Yushchenko was not taking chances. He called his supporters back out onto the square Monday afternoon to defend the election victory, if necessary, and asked for their help in forming a trustworthy government.

Some 12,000 foreign observers watched Sunday's vote to help prevent a repeat of the apparent widespread fraud on Nov. 21 that sparked massive protests after Yanukovych was declared winner.