Category Nation/CIS
Source RosBusinessConsulting

KIEV — Ukrainian leader Viktor Yushchenko said he had not wanted to sack prime minister Yulia Timoshenko. He said the decision had been prompted by new allegations of corruption within Ukrainian authorities made by deputy prime minister Mykola Tomenko on Thursday morning.

On Wednesday evening, Yushchenko met with Timoshenko and Petro Poroshenko, the head of Ukraine's security and defense council. They reached a compromise that satisfied all parties: some Ukrainian officials, among them Poroshenko, resign, while Timoshenko remains in office. The Ukrainian leader was to announce his decision in a televised address to the nation at 10:30 on Thursday.

However, deputy prime minister Tomenko, Timoshenko’s close ally, gave a news conference at 9:00, announcing his resignation and releasing new details of wrongdoing by Ukraine’s top officials.

Yushchenko said he could not have ignored it. His address to the nation was postponed for one hour, during which time he developed a new idea of his speech. He admitted a conflict within the country’s authorities. “I was aware of some misunderstandings but I saw them as a temporary problem. But with time the standoff grew into a conflict and backstage intrigues. I am convinced that the time has come when my colleagues lost their team spirit and faith. And today, however hard it may be, I must cut this Gordian knot, in the name of Ukraine,” Yushchenko said in his televised addressed on Thursday.

He said he would sign decrees on the resignation of prime minister Yulia Timoshenko, Petro Poroshenko, the head of Ukraine's security and defense council, and chief customs official Vladimir Skomarovsky.

It is unclear how relations between Yushchenko and Timoshenko will develop, the newspaper story says. The Ukrainian president said on Thursday he would be glad to see both Timoshenko and Poroshenko in a new government team. “I would like them to remain in power. In what capacity, this needs discussing. They are important people for Ukraine’s recent history,” he told reporters.