KIEV, Sept. 20 – President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko exchanged some of the harshest criticism of each other over the weekend, a sign that a new coalition between the two is increasingly unlikely.

Parties in Parliament must form a new coalition within 30 days following last week’s formal collapse of the Yushchenko-Tymoshenko alliance in order to avoid an early election later this year.

Yushchenko called “betrayal” Tymoshenko’s recent efforts, jointly with the opposition Regions Party, to try to eliminate presidential powers, the efforts that among other things had led to the collapse of the coalition.

“What the prime minister has done has become the banal event for our Ukrainian politics that is called by one word: the betrayal,” Yushchenko said addressing a meeting of Our Ukraine party on Saturday.

“This person will not stop until she turns Ukraine upside down,” Yushchenko said. “What is happening now is the scenario aimed at destabilizing the situation.”

Yushchenko sought to link Tymoshenko’s secretly coordinated actions with the Regions Party to a efforts that had been taken by Oleksander Moroz, the leader of the Socialist Party in August 2006 when he had unexpectedly joined forces with the Regions in a coalition. Moroz’s party was later punished by voters for betraying his election promises.

“We have to clearly tell voters that what the prime minister is leading to as the road to the betrayal of Ukrainian democracy,” Yushchenko said.

Meanwhile, Tymoshenko responded quickly on Sunday by calling Yushchenko’s comments “craziness” that as she had alleged underscores “inadequacy” of the president.

“I think this is craziness,” Tymoshenko said. “I don’t feel comfortable about making comments in response, but I think that the result is simple, this is a complete inadequacy [of the president].”

Yushchenko and Tymoshenko have earlier made comments criticizing each other, but their sharp exchange over the weekend goes personal, underscoring the level of discomfort both feel while working with each other.

The developments also show that Tymoshenko may be facing the only option of creating a coalition with the Regions Party and the Communist Party, the two pro-Russian groups, to avoid the dismissal of Parliament and early election.

But creating such coalition would probably undermine Tymoshenko’s pro-Western image among people in western regions of Ukraine, her main support base, underscoring her recent actions that had come in line with Russian interests.

Meanwhile, Yushchenko’s joining of the meeting of Our Ukraine underlines an important change in his position towards the party, perhaps suggesting that he will again lead the party he had established years ago.

Yushchenko, while being the president, has at one point distanced himself from Our Ukraine, but suggested on Saturday the time has changed.

“My goal is to come and to say that I bring in the new energy to you, new unity and that we have to come to a single political project that is called and will always be called Our Ukraine,” Yushchenko said.

“We’re talking now about the renewal of the political project Our Ukraine that is led by the president of Ukraine,” he said. (tl/ez)