THE leadership of Ukraine plunged into crisis yesterday when a top aide to President Yushchenko said that he had resigned because corruption in the administration was worse than before the Orange Revolution.

Oleksandr Zinchenko, who resigned as the President’s Chief of Staff on Saturday, accused Petro Poroshenko, the powerful head of the Defence and Security Council, of being one of the worst offenders.

“Corruption is now even worse than before,” Mr Zinchenko told a news conference broadcast live across the former Soviet republic as Mr Poroshenko looked on, frowning, from the back of the room.

Mr Poroshenko, a confectionary and media tycoon known as the “Chocolate King”, was a key financier of the protest movement that overturned a rigged election and swept Mr Yushchenko into power last year. But Mr Zinchenko, considered to be the architect of the popular revolt, demanded that the President fire him and another top aide, Oleksandr Tretyakov, accusing them of “cynically carrying out their plan to use government posts to their own ends”.

Mr Zinchenko said: “People’s patience is running out. It is not too late to stop it. But if it is not done quickly and decisively, there will be a counter-revolution.” When he had finished, an enraged Mr Poroshenko took the podium and accused Mr Zinchenko of trying to blow apart Mr Yushchenko’s team from within. Mr Poroshenko said: “During my time in government, I did not become one penny richer or gain one share. I ask for one concrete fact that proves the accusations here today.”

The confrontation revealed the extent of the rifts between the leaders of the Orange Revolution and cast further doubts on their ability to deliver promised reforms. Mr Yushchenko took office in January pledging to root out official corruption, streamline the economy and take Ukraine into the European Union, the World Trade Organisation and Nato.

But many of his reforms have stalled because of disagreements between his office and that of Yuliya Tymoshenko, the Prime Minister.

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