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Tymoshenko, Yushchenko Split Widens

10 September 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Political divisions among the leaders of Ukraine's Orange Revolution have deepened, with former Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko pledging to lead a rival political force against President Viktor Yushchenko in next year's parliamentary elections.

Tymoshenko spoke on Ukrainian television last night, one day after Yushchenko dismissed her seven-month-old cabinet amid infighting and accusations of corruption among senior officials.

Tymoshenko stopped short of saying she would join Ukraine's official opposition, but said she and her supporters would form a "parallel" force to Yushchenko's backers to compete in the elections set for March 2006.

"I and Viktor Andriyovych [Yushchenko] will go to the elections in parallel ways,"Tymoshenko said. "It does not mean it is a war. There will be two different teams, with absolutely different people. I will not go to the elections with those people who have discredited Ukraine so much -- I do not mean the president, but his closest circle."

No reaction to Tymoshenko's comments was immediately available from Yushchenko.

Yushchenko says he is seeking to get a new government in place quickly under his ally Yuriy Yekhanurov, whom he has appointed acting prime minister.

(Reuters/AP/AFP)

Copyright (c) 2005. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org