The entire Ukrainian government resigned onThursday,after two parties said they would pull out of the governing coalition.This opened the way for new elections that would reflect the country's starkly changed political scene after the ouster of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in February.
President Petro Poroshenko, elected to replace Yanukovych on 25 May, praised the withdrawal of the two parties. He said that "all opinion polls, and direct conversations with people, show that society wants a complete rebooting of the government."
Poroshenko's calls for political renewal suggests the resignation and new elections are the result of planning and political maneuvering, not chaos.
Poroshenko hasofficially namedVolodymyr Hroysman as the country's acting prime minister. Hroysman replaces Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who took over as prime minister just short of five months ago supported by a coalition of pro-European parties. They took power after Yanukovych was driven from office by months of street protests on Kiev's Independence Square, or Maidan.
When he took office, Yatsenyuk's administration was expected to be a brief one because it was taking over with the government almost broke and facing the likelihood of adopting unpopular measures to satisfy conditions for rescue loans from the International Monetary Fund. It succeeded in landing the IMF bailout and last week IMF officials said the government was meeting almost all its financial targets.
The nationalist Svoboda party and theUdarparty led by former boxer Vitali Klitschko pulled out of Yatsenyuk's coalition. The current Parliament was originally dominated by Yanukovych supporters in the pro-Russian Party of Regions. That group has shrunk through defections and its members face an uncertain fate in new elections.
Those elections the second this year in conditions of civil war, might have grave consequences for Ukrainețs future in its recognised borders. On the one hand, knowing that the future elections, likethe last one, will not be organised in the territories controlled by separatists, the result could lead to the consolidation of their independence de facto. On the other hand, the resignation of the government could also indicate that president Petro Poroshenko, who remains now theuniqueresponsible of the military operations, is certain that until the elections he might conquer themback separatist territories, with the possible exception of Crimea.
Of course, problems will arise immediately after the elections, first in economic terms: conducting a military offensive during the whole summer in the Eastern part of the Ukraine would lead to a total disruption of the economy, and especially of agriculture, during that part of the country.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government has received a warning from Human Rights Watch.
Unguided Grad rockets launched apparently byUkrainiangovernment forces and pro-government militias have killed at least 16 civilians and wounded many more in insurgent-controlled areas of Donetsk and its suburbs in at least four attacks between July 12 and 21, 2014, Human Rights Watch said today.
The use of indiscriminate rockets in populated areas violates international humanitarian law, or the laws of war, and may amount to war crimes.“Grad rockets are notoriously imprecise weapons that shouldn’t be used in populated areas,” saidOle Solvang, senior emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch. “If insurgent and Ukrainian government forces are serious about limiting harm to civilians, they should both immediately stop using these weapons in populated areas.”
The Ukrainian military says 325 soldiers and officers have been killed since the "antiterrorist" operation was launched in the country's eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk more than two months ago.
In Brussels, the Commission presented on Thursday a document outlining a number of measures that could be taken in the areas set out by the Council conclusions, and theCommittee of Permanent Representatives also agreedto add further persons and entities responsible for action against Ukraine's territorial integrity to the list of those subject to an asset freeze and a visa ban.
Meanwhile, Russia announced it will ban milk and dairy products imports from Ukraine starting on 28 July.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/incertitude-ukraine-after-government-resignation