Powell Says U.S. Will Not Accept Final Tally in Ukraine

NYT article

With international pressure mounting on Ukraine, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said today that the United States could not accept its recent election results. He urged President Leonid Kuchma not to use force against the sprawling crowds in Kiev streets protesting the official outcome.

Defying American and European calls not to certify the election, Ukraine declared today that Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich was the winner of elections that several foreign monitoring groups and a White House special envoy have called seriously flawed.

"We cannot accept this result as legitimate because it does not meet international standards," Mr. Powell said, "and because there has not been an investigation of the numerous and credible reports of fraud and abuse."

The United States, he added, was "deeply disturbed" by these reports.

The secretary of state, in a forceful statement backed by similar declarations from European and Canadian officials, urged a full review of the election, which several international monitoring groups and a White House special envoy have declared seriously flawed.

The US has whined to the Russian ambassador in the US, but probably for useless reasons; the ambassador likely gets enough hell already, and it's not like he doesn't know the American sentiment.
And, the US wants to work with Russia to resolve the issue, but the solution must be according to America's demands, not Russia's, at least according to the US. Russia, naturally, wants the solution to follow Russia's demands.
This "let's make a deal, though we disagree on the basics of that deal" is quite common in diplomacy. The solution to this problem is found in an excellent quote by McCall Spirit, who said "diplomacy is the art of letting someone else have your way". In other words, the US has to make a Yushchenko victory attractive to Russia.

To do this, the US can either bribe/appease Russia, threaten Russia, or work out a clever situation in which case a Yanukovich victory would harm Russia (or a Yushchenko victory would help Russia). The last option is the best overall (as it costs the US nothing and doesn't hurt international relations), but it is also the most difficult, by far. I expect some combination of the first two options, though both the carrot and stick may be hidden under the table (to US citizens. They would be obvious to Russian diplomats and policy-makers, of course).