KIEV (AFP) — Ukraine's domestic political crisis has "considerably weakened" the former Soviet republic's chances for joining NATO and slowed key gas talks with Russia, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said Friday.
"The unilateral withdrawal by the president and his team from the coalition has considerably weakened the chances of Ukraine completing its Euro-Atlantic path," she said, referring to becoming a member of the Atlantic Alliance.
Speaking at a joint news conference with her Polish counterpart, Donald Tusk, Tymoshenko added however that she still hoped for a "positive resolution" of the issue at some point.
Ukraine's ruling pro-Western coalition collapsed this week after President Viktor Yushchenko pulled his party out of an alliance with the prime minister's Tymoshenko Bloc, throwing the country's NATO bid into question.
Tymoshenko also said that the political crisis sparked by the coalition's breakdown had slowed negotiations between Russia and Ukraine on a vital long-term natural gas supply agreement.
"Without any doubt, when the situation is so uncertain... all negotiations slow down," she said.
But she added: "I hope we will complete the negotiations in a constructive way that takes Ukrainian and Russian national interests into account to reach a long-term agreement on supply of gas to Ukraine."
The gas relationship between the two countries has direct implications for countries in Europe which are heavily reliant on natural gas piped from Russia via Ukrainian territory.
Supplies to Europe were briefly disrupted in January 2006 as a consequence of a gas price dispute between Russia and Ukraine.
Russia has said it wants to phase out cheap gas supplies for Ukraine under a subsidy scheme dating from Soviet times and bring prices paid by Kiev into line with market rates paid by other countries in Europe.
The online daily Ukrainska Pravda reported this week that Russia could demand that Ukraine pay up to 420 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters next year, a steep increase on the 179.5 dollars it currently pays.
Despite Kiev's drive to join NATO, the alliance declined to grant Ukraine the "membership action plan" it covets -- a key step towards membership -- at a summit in Bucharest in April.
NATO foreign ministers however were expected to revisit the issue in December.
Polls have in recent years consistently indicated that most Ukrainians oppose NATO membership for their country.
Tymoshenko and Yushchenko, the icons of the 2004 Orange Revolution, split over how to respond to Russia's war with Georgia last month as well as the Ukrainian parliament's bid to roll back the president's powers.
Tymoshenko sided with the pro-Moscow opposition in the vote, prompting Yushchenko to complain of a "coup" in parliament.
Yushchenko has warned against Russian interference in the political crisis and has accused Tymoshenko of committing "high treason" by not supporting Georgia enough. She has rejected the charge, saying she is no Kremlin ally.
European officials have said Ukraine could be the next target for Russian interference because of the country's large population of Russian-speakers as well as tensions over Russia's Black Sea fleet, based in a Ukrainian port.
That fleet, which was founded by Catherine the Great and has been based at Sevastopol for over two centuries, is based in the Crimean port under the terms of a lease that expires in 2017.
Last month near the height of the conflict in Georgia, Ukraine announced that it was imposing new restrictions on the movements of Russian naval vessels based at Sevastopol.
The Russian foreign ministry said that move had "damaged the atmosphere of our relations."
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