Yuliya Timoshenko and Marina Soroka

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko, left, at a briefing in cabinet council in Kiev, December 20, 2008. Yulia Timoshenko accused President Viktor Yushchenko of causing the dramatic fall of the national currency hryvna and said she would put herself in opposition to him and his team. “I don’t want to be a part of such power-wielding team and this is why I clearly say that I am in opposition to such officials as the president of Ukraine, the chairman of the National Bank, and the entire criminal group that surrounds them today, and I will be together with the country and the people of Ukraine and I will fight together with them to prevent such phenomena in the country in the future,” Timoshenko said. She expressed regret that she had supported Yushchenko in the presidential election in 2004 and called for “fair coverage” of the events involving the hryvna over the past week. Timoshenko accused Yushchenko of covering up speculative operations of the National Bank on the Ukrainian currency market. Photo by Aleksandr Prokopenko / POOL / UNIAN