Ukraine PM Yatsenyuk announces resignation

Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk officially announced his long-anticipated resignation on April 10, stating he will submit his request to parliament on April 12. “This government is the best in the history of Ukraine,” he said in his April 10 speech. “Both of the last two Cabinets were unique. They were the first manifestations of new Ukraine.”

At the April 12 session of parliament, it’s widely expected that a new coalition government will emerge between the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and the People’s Front party, led by Yatsenyuk. This will be accomplished by recruiting MPs that were either independent or excluded from other factions, which some claim is unconstitutional.

It has been agreed in closed-door talks that the president’s close ally and current speaker, Volodymyr Hroisman, will become prime minister and Andriy Parubiy, a close ally to Yatsenyuk and current deputy speaker, will become parliamentary speaker in the April 12 vote, according to the dt.ua news site. President Poroshenko confirmed that he expects Hroisman will become the new prime minister in a televised interview on April 10.

Zenon Zawada: As speaker, Hroisman demonstrated that he’s entirely loyal to the president, showing no independent political will. With his emergence as PM, Poroshenko will be taking full responsibility for the government’s performance, which is positive because that will reduce blame-shifting and lack of accountability. Yet it will be negative because the president has demonstrated so far a resistance to reforms and disinterest in fighting corruption. Indeed the next six months will make or break the Poroshenko presidency.