KIEV, Aug. 7 – Friction between Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and President Viktor Yushchenko rose Thursday when the government refused to finance preparations for the traditional military parade to mark Ukraine’s independence on Aug. 24.

Yushchenko believes the parade would boost morale and show off some modern weaponry, including tanks and aircraft, but Tymoshenko quietly refused to allocate the money for it.

An unnamed government official said Thursday that Tymoshenko has sent a letter to Yushchenko asking to cancel the parade and to spend the money, about 70 million hryvnias ($14.4 million), as a relief aid to areas affected by recent floods.

“The prime minister’s letter is just another attempt to speculate on the problems of the country, this time on the ecological disaster,” Viktor Baloha, the chief of staff at the Yushchenko office, said.

“We have to do our best to make sure that the Independence Day even during the time of strain is the holiday for every Ukrainian, for the sake of unity of the Ukrainian society,” Baloha said.

Analysts said the refusal to finance the parade was probably politically motivated.

Lawmakers voted overwhelmingly last month to approve 5.8 billion hryvnias ($1.2 billion) in relief aid to western regions of Ukraine that had suffered from the flood. The aid approved by lawmakers was twice as much as the government had originally asked for.

The refusal to finance the parade underscores growing rivalry between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko as both have been preparing to run against each other at the presidential election late next year.

This is the latest move by Tymoshenko that has been aimed at derailing propositions from Yushchenko.

Tymoshenko earlier in July moved to block supplies of Caspian oil via Odessa-Brody, another project that Yushchenko has been working over the past three years.

Baloha said last month that Tymoshenko, at a meeting with her Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin earlier this year, has also allegedly promised to postpone Ukraine’s accession to NATO.

Tymoshenko never commented on the allegation, but she has been persistently trying to derail Yushchenko’s foreign policy and economic initiatives.

The rivalry between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko was likely to escalate later this year that may trigger clashes and even standoff between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko, which may lead to the resignation of the government, analysts said.

The Tymoshenko government, due to sudden support from the Communist Party, a small pro-Russian group, survived a no-confidence vote in July.

But the Regions Party, the biggest opposition group that is unhappy with Tymoshenko’s economic policy, has been planning to hold another no confidence vote in the fall. (tl/ez)