Ukraine Faces Crisis As Orange Leaders Split

Ukraine's "orange revolution" was dramatically unravelling last night when one of its principal icons, Yulia Timoshenko, responded to her dismissal as prime minister by vowing to take her supporters into opposition against her former ally, president Viktor Yushchenko.

Nine months after the pair spearheaded the popular protest that swept away an era of Soviet-style stalwarts, Ms Timoshenko underscored the deep cleft in the country's new leadership, saying: "Today we are two different teams."

"I think these two teams will go their own way," she said, adding: "It does not mean it will be a war."

It was her first reaction to Mr Yushchenko's move on Thursday to fire her and her cabinet after key figures accused each other of corruption.

Ms Timoshenko blamed members of Mr Yuschenko's inner circle for waging a war against her. She said: "I won't go into an election with people who have so discredited Ukraine."

She added that she and the president would go to parliamentary elections in March "on parallel paths" with her bloc running as "a separate and very powerful political force".

"It is a great pain for me. It is the biggest moral trauma of my life," she said of the disintegrating orange alliance. Mr Yushchenko, she said, had "practically ruined our unity, our future, the future of the country".

The rift between the two charismatic leaders of the people-power revolution that gripped Ukraine in December signalled an end to the euphoria that brought tens of thousands of supporters on to the streets in their support.

During the revolution the pair formed a dream team to oppose pro-Moscow candidate Viktor Yanukovich, who was accused of rigging the presidential election.

Ms Timoshenko, 44, adopted a combative style as prime minister, clashing with Russia over the prices it charges Ukraine for energy. A striking and charismatic speaker who whipped up the street protests with blistering rhetoric, she was a perfect foil for the more thoughtful but authoritative Mr Yushchenko.

Together they made their way to power, but their partnership was corroded by personal disagreements and rivalries within the ruling elite.

Mr Yushchenko's chief of staff told the press yesterday that Ms Timoshenko had refused an offer to return to the cabinet. Yury Yekhanurov, the acting prime minister appointed by the president this week, was in talks yesterday to choose a new government.

Commentators predicted a battle to seize the moral high ground between the leaders of the revolution, with each seeking to discredit the other for tainting their "orange ideals".

Mr Yushchenko and his allies took power on a promise to eradicate the cronyism that characterised the regime of his predecessor, Leonid Kuchma. But he admitted on Thursday that "many new faces have come to power but the face of power has not changed".

Ms Timoshenko's supporters struck back yesterday saying she had been tarred with the brush of corruption that she had herself attempted to stamp out.

"Those who fought for the ideals of the orange revolution and those who betrayed them have been put in the same camp," Anatoly Seminoga, an MP in her bloc, told a plenary session of the parliament.

Former deputy prime minister Mykola Tomenko told Russian media that he had urged Ms Timoshenko to abandon her ties with the president's Our Ukraine party and fight the elections alone.

Another of Ms Timoshenko's allies, former state secretary Alexander Zinchenko, triggered the political crisis on Monday when he gave up his post and accused her main rival, Petro Poroshenko, of corruption.

Mr Poroshenko, the powerful secretary of the national security and defence council, denied the charges but resigned on the pretext of allowing an unimpeded investigation. It is expected that he will also enter the fight for the premiership, perhaps as an ally of the president.

Under constitutional changes forced on Mr Yushchenko after the revolution, the powers of the prime minister were radically increased at the expense of the presidency. The changes come into force next year.