KIEV, May 26 – Political divisions between President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko widened on Tuesday after the two traded attacks targeting each other’s allies.

Yushchenko rejected Tymoshenko’s nomination of Valeriy Pustovoytenko, a former prime minister, as the governor of the Kiev region. He also rejected Tymoshenko’s pressure to dismiss Defense Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov, the president’s last remaining ally in the government, as politically motivated.

The developments show the divisions between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko continue to widen despite the recent resignation of Viktor Baloha, Tymoshenko’s biggest foe, from a top post at the Yushchenko office.

The resignation, and the appointment of moderate Vira Ulianchenko as Yushchenko’s new chief of staff, had been fueling hopes the two may ease mutual attacks ahead of the next presidential election.

But the latest developments undermine those hopes.

“A non-aggression pact between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko is impossible,” Leonid Kravchuk, a former president who has been now working with the Tymoshenko team, told Channel 5 television. “It’s impossible because nobody sticks to agreements.”

Tymoshenko launched the attack against Yekhanurov last week following staged allegations by the government’s financial watchdog, KRU, that the defense ministry had been overspending money on food.

KRU, led by Mykola Syvulskiy, Tymoshenko’s confidant since 1996 when he had helped her to manage her well-connected $10 billion natural gas trading operation, allegedly discovered that the defense ministry has been overpaying for food supplies.

Tymoshenko quickly accused Yekhanurov of “corruption” and sent a letter to Yushchenko seeking his dismissal. Separately, she nominated Pustovoytenko, who worked as the prime minister in 1998-1999, as the governor of the Kiev region, waiting for the president’s approval.

Yushchenko on Tuesday rejected the motions as politically motivated.

“There is nothing here except politics and personnel wars,” Yushchenko said. “This is a policy of eliminating an effective authority, these are intrigues that are needed for the election.”

The defense minister controls the 190,000-strong army, the ultimate military force, which may be the major asset ahead of the next presidential election if the political situation gets out of control, analysts said.

Yekhanurov on Tuesday denied the allegations, which he said had been based on manipulated report of the KRU, and said the matter must be investigated by the Prosecutor General’s Office.

Yekhanurov demanded that Tymoshenko immediately dismiss Syvulskiy for carrying out “undisguised falsification,” and also demanded that Tymoshenko submit her apology.

“If there is no reaction to these demands, I reserve the right to defend my honor and dignity in court,” Yekhanurov wrote in an open letter to Tymoshenko. (tl/ez)