Kiev: Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s resignation on Thursday created new uncertainty in his nation at a crucial moment in its military offensive against pro-Russian rebels in the east.
The move was sure to distract Ukrainian politicians even as leaders from around the world push for unfettered access to the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down deep inside rebel-held territory.
The Dutch government said 40 unarmed military police were leaving the Netherlands late yesterday for eastern Ukraine to help investigators, while Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said his government is close to a deal to send police. Australia has 90 federal police officers standing by in Europe.
As heavy fighting continued in eastern Ukraine, the Obama administration said it had new intelligence information that Russia is preparing to deliver heavier, more powerful ground-to-ground multiple rocket launchers to separatist forces, and that Russian forces on their own side of the border are firing artillery at Ukrainian military positions.
Dutch military aircraft continued flying the remains of victims of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 from Ukraine to the Netherlands on Thursday.
Protection force
The Dutch and Australian governments were discussing the formation of an international protection force of military and police from countries with victims of the crash, to protect investigators who are still waiting for full access to the separatist-controlled crash site.
Yatsenyuk’s surprise resignation came after two major parties said they were withdrawing from the governing coalition. President Petro Poroshenko welcomed the coalition’s collapse, saying it bows to Ukrainian society’s desire for “a complete reload of state power.” Poroshenko later said he hoped the “entire” cabinet, presumably including Yatsenyuk, stayed on.
The political rearrangement seemed intended to pave the way for elections this fall, two years early. Poroshenko pledged wide government and electoral reforms when sworn into office last month, but many members of parliament are a holdover from the era of ousted president Viktor Yanukovych.
Nevertheless, Yatsenyuk’s resignation threw the government into disarray at a critical juncture. Finance Minister Oleksandr Shlapak warned parliament on Thursday that the military was swiftly running out of money to pay for its offensive in the east, where troops are seeking to regain control of rebel-held territory around Donetsk and Luhansk.
“As of August 1, we’ll have nothing to pay the military,” Shlapak said, according to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, as he urged parliament to increase tax revenue.
The immediate trigger for Yatsenyuk’s resignation was the decision by the Svoboda and Udar parties earlier Thursday to pull out of the coalition government. The collapse of the coalition, Yatsenyuk said, means that parliament would be politically hobbled.
— Agencies
