KIEV, Dec. 18 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko Thursday accused the National Bank of Ukraine, some commercial banks and the office of President Viktor Yushchenko of running a concerted speculative attack on the hryvnia for their own profit.

Tymoshenko also angrily lashed out at the NBU for its refusal to lend money directly to the government, a move that she had suggested may threaten the schedule of social payments.

Tymoshenko called for the immediate dismissal of Volodymyr Stelmakh, the governor of the NBU, adding that her loyalist lawmakers will block the operation of Parliament until the governor is replaced.

The allegations come as Ukraine faces an escalating financial crisis hat had led to the hryvnia losing 50% of its value against the U.S. dollar over the past three months.

The depth and the scope of the allegations - some of them bordering with little economic sense – do suggest the government has been facing significant challenges in financing budget expenses.

The allegations also show Tymoshenko has been desperately trying to distance herself and her government from the crisis that may have serious political fallout by undercutting her political support ahead of the next presidential election in early 2010.

“I know what they want: to make it the worse the better and to make the life for the government - and as a result for the country – impossible. And to make some good money in the process,” Tymoshenko said in a statement at a special press conference.

“I am radically against such a behavior,” Tymoshenko said. “My group and I will be acting radically against such situation.”

Tymoshenko left the conference room immediately after making the statement. She did not take any questions.

In the statement, Tymoshenko accused Nadra Bank, owned by Dmytro Firtash, a co-owner of RosUkrEnergo, Ukraine’s only natural gas supplier, of running a speculative attack on the hryvnia with the help of the money obtained from the NBU.

Tymoshenko, who received her information from undisclosed sources, said that Nadra Bank had received 7.1 billion hryvnias in emergency refinancing from the NBU, and claims the bank had used the money to buy hard currency.

“There are some other banks that have been conducting similar transactions,” Tymoshenko said. “And today almost one billion dollars is sitting at those banks until the hryvnia becomes the cheapest.”

“Once the hryvnia drops, the banks will spend the hard currency, buy the hryvnias and then push for the hryvnia’s strengthening and will again buy dollars,” Tymoshenko said. “After one of such transactions at Nadra Bank, which is backed by the office of the president, they would be able to pocket half a billion dollars.”

Nadra Bank, in response, issued a statement urging political figures and government officials not to get the bank involved in politics.

“Nadra is not a political party,” the bank said in an address to the President, the Cabinet of Ministers and Parliament. “This is a commercial bank that has been providing services to the people and to the real sector for more than 15 years.”

Tymoshenko, ever since becoming the prime minister a year ago, has been persistently attacking Firtash and seeking to replace RosUkrEnergo with Gazprom, the Russian state controlled gas monopoly, as the main gas supplier to Ukraine.

Ukraine owes RosUkrEnergo about $2 billion for gas supplies in October through the end of November, the debt that forces Gazprom to threaten with gas supply disruptions at the end of the year.

Tymoshenko did not name other commercial banks that she believes are involved in the attack on the hryvnia, but said she will release the information to the Prosecutor General’s Office.

Tymoshenko’s comments mentioning Nadra Bank may trigger panic and a run on deposits at the bank, a move that may add to the crisis as Ukraine’s banking sector has been facing challenges.

The NBU has never announced which banks have been getting about 40 billion hryvnias in the emergency refinancing money over the past three months, saying the information was confidential.

The only bank that was known to have received about 7 billion hryvnias in refinancing was ProminvestBank, one of Ukraine’s largest banks, that has been facing a run on deposits and a possible hostile takeover.

Tymoshenko also lashed out at the NBU for its apparent refusal to lend at least 6 billion hryvnias directly to the government, as the bank had apparently disbursed only 600 million hryvnias.

The NBU is banned by law from providing direct lending to the government as a measure preventing high inflation, but it has been doing so on a limited scale through purchasing the government’s Treasury bills and other instruments.

Viktor Baloha, the chief of staff at the office of Yushchenko, said Tymoshenko has been trying to get away with her populist economic policy that had contributed to the current financial crisis.

“Tymoshenko had all the powers and was supposed, jointly with the NBU, to provide financial stability in the country,” Baloha said.

“The allegations have no other explanation except for her desire to lead an intensive care team that is fighting consequences of her own government’s activity,” Baloha said. “The price of her presidential campaign may be the financial collapse of the country.” (tl/ez)