Yushchenko Says Ukraine Government in State of Collapse

Ukraine's pro-western coalition government was today on the brink of collapse after its two ruling parties fell out over Russia's invasion of Georgia.

The country's president, Viktor Yushchenko, accused his prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, of attempting to stage a parliamentary coup against him. He is threatening to dissolve parliament and call early elections.

Tymoshenko and Yushchenko's parties have been in uneasy coalition since last autumn, with Tymoshenko becoming prime minister for the second time in December. Their pro-democratic coalition has a two-seat majority.

Yesterday, Tymoshenko's bloc voted with the opposition Party of Regions to strip the president of several powers and boost those of the prime minister. In the early hours of this morning, Yushchenko's Our Ukraine bloc quit the coalition in protest.

Yushchenko appeared on a live national broadcast denouncing the vote in Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada, or lower house, describing it as "a political and constitutional coup". He said a new governing coalition should be formed as quickly as possible.

The ostensible trigger for the government's collapse after less than a year is the war in Georgia. Ukraine and Georgia are both post-Soviet countries that seek to become members of Nato and the European Union. Speculation has grown that Ukraine and its Russian-speaking Crimea region could be drawn into conflict with the Kremlin.

Yushchenko has been outspoken in his condemnation of Russia's invasion of Georgia and his support for Georgia's pro-US president, Mikheil Saakashvili. Tymoshenko, however, has refused to condemn Russia directly. Yesterday, her party failed to support a toughly worded statement blaming Moscow.

Underlying this are political calculations ahead of Ukraine's next presidential election in early 2010. Tymoshenko is expected to challenge Yushchenko, her former Orange Revolution ally, for the presidency. Viktor Yanukovich, the former prime minister who leads the Party of the Regions, is also likely to stand.

"I think the ultimate reason for the political tensions is the president's post and the next election," said Igor Shevliakov, of the International Centre for Policy Studies in Kiev, said. "She [Tymoshenko] wants to win. She wants to go into an election campaign completely independent."

Tymoshenko today bitterly criticized Yushchenko. "The president and his office has 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 resolve their differences and revive the coalition. If they do not do so, parliament has 30 days to form a new coalition. After that the president has the right to call a new election.

One possibility, unlikely but not impossible, is that Tymoshenko will form a new government with the 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 party and the Regions bloc would make gains.

Yushchenko and Tymoshenko both took part in Ukraine's 2004 orange revolution, which saw Yushchenko eventually become president and Tymoshenko installed as Ukraine's first woman prime minister. Yushchenko sacked her seven months later.