As observers reported back from across the country, one thing was clear to Viktor Yushchenko: the election results had been falsified. It was late evening one year ago this week when the Ukrainian opposition leader issued his rousing call for an uprising against his country's skewed presidential poll.
Only a handful of Mr Yushchenko's shivering supporters made it to Kiev's Independence Square (or Maidan) on that first night of November 21, wearing the orange colours of his party. But within days they were joined by 500,000 chanting, banner-waving Ukrainians, screaming for the presidential election that had awarded victory to prime minister Viktor Yanukovych to be overturned.
For weeks, the 'orange revolution' dominated headlines across the world.
'We wanted to live in a new democratic country without corruption and vote fraud,' recalled Andriy Chuprin, a 43-year-old entrepreneur, of the protests that eventually swept the pro-western reformer, Mr Yushchenko, to the presidency after an election re-run.
Yet one year on, the euphoria of that people-power victory has transformed into deep disappointment. For many, a string of political crises has marred the anniversary. An opinion poll last week indicated 57 per cent of Ukrainians thought the orange promises had been broken.
'It turned out our new leaders acted the same old way as their predecessors,' said Mr Chuprin.