Former minister proposed as new PM
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who served in cabinet before 2010, put forward by protest movement leaders
KYIV, Ukraine — Leaders of Ukraine’s protest movement on Wednesday proposed a top legislator as the country’s next prime minister, while Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered major military exercises just across the border in a show of force and apparent displeasure over the country’s new direction.
The new government, which is expected to be formally approved by parliament Thursday, will face the hugely complicated task of restoring stability in a country that is deeply divided politically and on the verge of financial collapse. The country’s pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, fled the capital over the weekend.
At Kyiv’s Independence Square, the heart of the protest movement against Yanukovych, the interim leaders who seized control after he fled proposed Arseniy Yatsenyuk as the country’s new prime minister.
Yatsenyuk, 39, is a millionaire former banker who served as economy minister, foreign minister and parliamentary speaker before Yanukovych took office in 2010. Widely viewed as a technocratic reformer, he appears to enjoy the support of the U.S.
One of the first jobs for Yatsenyuk and other members of his new cabinet will be seeking outside financial help from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Economists say Ukraine is close to financial collapse, with its currency under pressure and its treasury almost empty. The acting finance minister has said Ukraine will need $35 billion in bailout loans to get through the next two years.
In Moscow, Putin ordered military exercises to test the readiness of units in central and western Russia, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a televised statement. The exercise would “check the troops’ readiness for action in crisis situations that threaten the nation’s military security,” he said.
Even though Russia denied the manoeuvres had any connection to the situation in Ukraine, the massive show of force was apparently intended to show both the new Ukrainian authorities and the West that the Kremlin was ready to use all means to protect its interests.