Ukrainian Coalition Collapses Amid Tensions Over Moscow

Ukraine's coalition government collapsed yesterday after its two ruling parties fell out over Russia's invasion of Georgia. President Viktor Yushchenko accused the prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, of attempting a coup and then threatened to dissolve parliament and call early elections.

The pro-democratic coalition of the pair has only a two-seat majority. On Tuesday Tymoshenko's bloc voted with the opposition to strip the president of some powers and boost her own. Yesterday Yushchenko's bloc quit the coalition in protest, with the president denouncing the vote in Ukraine's lower house and urging the formation of a new coalition.

The ostensible trigger for the government's collapse after less than a year is the conflict in Georgia. Speculation has grown that Ukraine and its Russian-speaking Crimea region could be the Kremlin's next "target".

Yushchenko has outspokenly condemned the invasion of Georgia but Tymoshenko has not criticized Russia directly. On Tuesday her party failed to support a toughly worded statement blaming Moscow.

Underlying this are political calculations before Ukraine's presidential election in 2010. Tymoshenko is expected to challenge Yushchenko for the presidency. Yesterday Tymoshenko bitterly criticized her former Orange ally of the 2004 revolution. "The president and his office have used every means to ruin the coalition," she told a cabinet meeting. "It's a pity that the president behaves with no responsibility. The coalition split yesterday, by his own decision."

Under Ukraine's constitution the two parties have 10 days to sort out their differences and revive any coalition. If they do not do so, parliament is allowed 30 days to form a new coalition. After that the president has the right to call an election.

One possibility is that Tymoshenko could form a new government with the opposition Party of Regions, her former adversaries. Polls show that if an election were held now Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party would lose seats while both Tymoshenko's bloc and the Regions party would make gains.