KIEV, March 2 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko faces dismissal on Wednesday amid mounting signs President Viktor Yanukovych’s Regions Party has secured enough votes to topple the government through a no-confidence motion.

The chances for the motion’s approval rose sharply after the Tymoshenko-led coalition on Tuesday failed to report names of 226 lawmakers in the 450-seat Parliament backing the coalition.

The failure prompted Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn to declare on Tuesday that the coalition had ceased to exist, triggering a 30-day countdown for a new coalition to be created.

“I declare that the coalition has ended its activity,” Lytvyn said.

The declaration triggered an avalanche of criticism from Tymoshenko, who accused the Lytvyn Bloc and Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense, the two other groups that had so far composed the governing coalition, for destroying it.

“The democratic coalition was the last fortress, the last barricade that should have been defended for the sake of independence, sovereignty and the European course of Ukraine,” Tymoshenko said.

“Today the Lytvyn Bloc and Our Ukraine bear responsibility for the destruction of the coalition,” Tymoshenko said. “This is the historical responsibility.”

Oleksandr Yefremov, a member of the Regions Party, said talks over a new coalition in Parliament are making progress. He said there were at least 226 lawmakers ready to vote for the dismissal of the Tymoshenko government.

“Most definitely there is a majority that will vote for the dismissal of the government,” Yefremov said. “Also, today is looming a majority that is ready to form a [new] coalition in Parliament.”

Yanukovych has been seeking to dismiss Tymoshenko before his trip to Moscow, which has been scheduled on Thursday, people familiar with the situation said.

Yanukovych already pledged to seek to re-negotiate the natural gas agreement that Tymoshenko had negotiated with her Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in January 2009.

Stanislav Belkovskiy, the director of Moscow-based Institute for National Strategy, said that otherwise Russian President Dmitry Medevdev could ask to keep her as the prime minister.

“Neither Putin nor Medevedev supported Yanukovych at the presidential election,” Belkovskiy said. “They would rather want to see Yulia Tymoshenko as the president.”

The natural gas agreement, which set gas prices for Ukraine as some of the highest in Europe, was one of the key reasons.

“Putin agreed with Tymoshenko on business that is the most important one in his life,” Belkovskiy said. “The arrival of Yanukovych means there will be at least partial revision of the reached agreement.”

“But any changes is a new headache that neither Gazprom, nor the Kremlin, nor Putin want,” he said.

Leaving Tymoshenko as the prime minister could pose a long-term problem for Yanukovych.

“If Tymoshenko clings to power, she as before will remain the main party to the Kremlin, while Yanukovych will be at outskirts of the Kremlin attention,” Belkovskiy said. (tl/ez)