Ukraine Coalition Break-up Sets Stage For October Elections


Ukrainian President, Petro Porosheko.
Associated Press

Ukraine’s ruling coalition broke up on Thursday and the prime minister submitted his resignation, setting the stage for parliamentary elections that could strengthen popular President Petro Poroshenko’s hand even as the country’s army battles a three-month separatist insurgency in its east.

Polls show that pro-Western parties, led by Mr. Poroshenko’s, would sweep the elections, and that pro-Russia parties might not cross the 5% threshold necessary for a parliamentary presence for the first time in Ukraine’s 23 years of independence.

But holding new elections across the whole country will require a quick military victory over Russia-backed militants dug in around several cities in Ukraine’s east. The army has made steady advances against the rebels in recent days, but Ukrainian officials say its task is made harder by the continued flow of Russian fighters and heavy weapons across the border.

Ukraine’s ruling coalition was declared dissolved after two parties announced they were withdrawing, in a widely expected move. Parliament’s work has been chaotic since pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych fled as his support in the chamber collapsed amid street protests in February.

Mr. Poroshenko, who took office in June, will have the right to dissolve parliament and call new elections after 30 days if no new coalition is formed by then.

Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a pro-Western economist, said his resignation announcement was a technical move triggered by the coalition’s breakup. Even if parliament votes to accept his resignation, he will continue in an interim capacity until a new coalition is formed, likely only after elections that could take place near the end of October.

Mr. Yatsenyuk earned plaudits for steering Ukraine’s economy during the crisis since he took office in March, including implementing tough austerity measures to seal a critical lending package from the International Monetary Fund.

In a speech in parliament, he hit out at lawmakers for failing to back initiatives that he said were aimed at reducing Ukraine’s energy dependence on Russia and releasing state cash to pay pensions and equip the army.

Polls show that the lawmaking body—stuffed full of businessmen, relatives of political heavyweights and former supporters of Mr. Yanukovych—is deeply unpopular, and a new chamber was a key demand of the street protests that ousted him.

This week, nationalist and pro-Russia lawmakers have scuffled at least twice over the Communist Party of Ukraine’s alleged support for separatists that control several towns in their heartland in the industrial east. The government on Thursday started an effort to ban the party.

The parties withdrawing are that of Kyiv mayor and former boxing champion Vitali Klitschko and nationalist group Svoboda, which said parliament wasn’t functioning as it should. Mr. Poroshenko hailed their decision as a step toward “rebooting authorities” in the country.

The elections could happen near the end of October, according to an election official, though they could be difficult to carry out if fighting continues. Even as Ukraine is steadily pushing back at the militants, it has suffered setbacks.

Two jet fighters were shot down on Wednesday around 30 kilometers from site of the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, an attack that Ukraine had said preliminary information showed was from Russian territory.

Col. Andriy Lysenko, a Kyiv security spokesman, said one version under investigation was whether they had been targeted by missiles from the Russian side of the border, but that officials needed first to talk to the pilots of the planes, who successfully ejected. He said the pilots were “not in captivity,” but wouldn’t elaborate.

Russia’s Defense Ministry called any accusation of its involvement in shooting down the planes “fantasy.”

The insurgents in the east hold several large towns and cities, including the regional capital of Donetsk, which had over one million residents before the violence started in May.

Ukraine appears to be steadily advancing, albeit slowly. Col. Lysenko said Thursday that troops were engaged in street fighting to clear Lysychansk, the base of a key rebel commander.

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