KIEV, Ukraine, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- Former Ukraine President Viktor Yuschenko has been kicked out of the Our Ukraine party in a debt dispute, party officials said Saturday.
Yuschenko failed to live up to a commitment to pay off the party's debts and also ordered the replacement of members of local election committees with members of the rival Party of Regions, the party's political council said in a written statement.
"By doing so, Viktor Yushchenko betrayed the program statements of the Our Ukraine party," the statement said.
Russia's RIA Novosti news service said Yushchenko -- who led Our Ukraine to a poor showing in last year's parliamentary elections in which it won 1.11 percent of the vote -- had been planning to resign and establish a breakaway party.
