NEW YORK, Sept. 23 – President Viktor Yushchenko said Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, jointly with the opposition Regions Party, are seeking to remove him from the presidency this year in a bid to reverse Ukraine’s pro-Western foreign policy.

In comments at a Council on Foreign Relations meeting in New York, Yushchenko said the two groups planned to reshape the country’s political system and call presidential, parliamentary and local elections.

Such a shakeup would most certainly replace Yushchenko as the president and remove his Our Ukraine, the only party that vehemently supports the country’s accession to NATO, from Parliament.

“Political groups have been trying to destabilize the situation and to lead the country to early presidential, parliamentary and local elections,” Yushchenko said. This would “put in doubt the European course” and de-facto establish a two-party political system, he said.

This is the first time that Yushchenko has linked the ongoing political crisis to what he sees as a concerted attempt to slow down Ukraine’s pro-Western course in a move that may have benefited Russia.

The crisis comes a month after Russia’s incursion into Georgia, a NATO hopeful and Ukraine’s close ally, underscoring Moscow’s new assertive foreign policy aimed at re-establishing control over former satellites.

Tymoshenko lawmakers earlier this month denied any plans to impeach the president.

But the Tymoshenko group, jointly with the Communist Party and the Regions Party, had voted overwhelmingly in early September to approve a bill that makes it easier to impeach the president. The Communist party, a vehemently pro-Russian group, had openly called for the impeachment.

Ukraine’s pro-Western coalition collapsed earlier this month after the Tymoshenko group had joined forces with the Regions and the Communists to approve a barrage of carefully prepared bills, including the impeachment bill, cutting powers of the president.

In reaction, Yushchenko pulled his party from the coalition, triggering a 30-day countdown for Tymoshenko to form a new coalition or to face early Parliamentary election in 60 days.

“Now a process had commenced that will either lead us to the formation of the new coalition within the time given by the constitution or to the early election in 60 days,” Yushchenko said.

The office of Yushchenko in August accused Tymoshenko of taking a number of economic decisions that may undermine Ukraine’s energy security and de-facto promote Russian interests.

For example, the office said Tymoshenko’s ban to sign a contract for Caspian Sea oil supplies via Odessa-Brody to Europe in July, was one of such decisions. Tymoshenko cited unspecified “corruption” concerns for banning the supplies.

Tymoshenko has been identifying herself to Ukrainian voters as a pro-Western figure, but her sudden refusal to condemn Russia for disproportionate use of force and incursion into Georgia last month was curious, analysts said.

On the contrary, Yushchenko has rallied early international support for Georgia, and jointly with leaders of six countries had covered thousands kilometers across the war zone to a rally in Tbilisi.

Speaking in New York on Tuesday, Yushchenko said the war in Georgia had underscored the lack of security system in place in the region, another case underlining his push towards joining NATO as soon as possible.

Ukraine, as well as Georgia, have been strongly seeking to secure the Membership Action Plan, a program that immediately precedes the accession to NATO, at a summit in December.

The war showed that the Black Sea region “has no security checks and balances,” Yushchenko said. “The European Union and the international community must direct their policies towards establishing the checks and balances making such incidents impossible.” (tl/ez)