Ukraine Mps Vote to Sack Cabinet Over 'gas War' Deal

Opposition MPs in Ukraine issued a stinging rebuke to President Viktor Yushchenko yesterday by voting to sack his cabinet over last week's deal to end the "gas war" with Russia.

A no-confidence motion was backed by 250 votes to 50 to dismiss the prime minister, Yury Yekhanurov, and his cabinet and reappoint them as acting ministers until elections in March. A third of members boycotted the vote.

Many MPs had reacted furiously to the deal with Moscow, under which control of Ukraine's gas imports was handed to a shadowy trading company called RosUkrEnergo, which has refused to reveal who owns half of its shares.

President Yushchenko, who was visiting Kazakhstan ahead of a meeting today with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, dismissed the parliamentary resolution as "unconstitutional". A spokeswoman for Mr Yushchenko said the president would file a legal challenge to overturn the vote.

It was unclear whether the vote had legal force under recent changes in legislation. But speaking to the Guardian shortly after the vote, former prime minister Yulia Timoshenko said: "Only as the result of corruption can Ukraine have agreed to such a secret pact. Today's dismissal of the government is a testimony that our orange revolution was not in vain. Deals can no longer be made like this, in the shadows."

Supplies of natural gas to several EU countries were disrupted last week after Moscow stopped gas flow to Ukraine following its refusal to accept a fourfold price hike for its own gas supplies.

The dispute was resolved in a deal signed between the two countries last Wednesday, but there has been mounting criticism in Moscow and Kiev over the terms. Under the agreement, RosUkrEnergo, which is partly owned by Gazprom, will sell a mixture of Russian and central Asian gas to Ukraine for $95 (£37) per 1,000 cubic metres, almost double what it paid last year.

Ms Timoshenko said she had asked prosecutors to investigate the deal. "It is clear that all this is a big fraud," she said.

The Russian daily, Kommersant, alleged yesterday that Semyon Mogilevich, a Ukrainian-born businessman wanted for fraud and racketeering by the FBI, took part in the gas negotiations. Gazprom said it had "no such information".