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UPDATE 1-Ukraine will not roll back reform agenda – PM Yatseniuk

(Adds quotes, background)

LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s President Petro
Poroshenko would veto any bills passed by the country’s
parliament that threatened to roll back Kyiv’s reform agenda,
Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said on Wednesday.

The International Monetary Fund warned Ukraine on Sunday not
to backtrack on reform plans, saying a package of seven bills,
if adopted, would “significantly” hurt efforts to shore up
Kyiv’s finances.

Another proposed bill, on converting foreign exchange loans
to hryvnia, would hurt Ukraine’s banks, the IMF has warned.

Asked at an event at think-tank Chatham House what would
happen if Ukraine’s parliament passed laws that risked
interfering with its IMF programme, Yatseniuk said reform plans
would not be halted.

“Yes, it is true that some political forces want to roll
back on the reform agenda but we are united with the president,”
Yatseniuk said.

“Even in case if any populistic bill will be on the floor
and the government will pass this bill, the president will
definitely veto it. No chances to stop reforms.”

More than 6,500 people have been killed and more than a
million displaced since conflict between separatists and
government forces broke out in eastern Ukraine in April last
year.

Ukraine and the West accuse Moscow of arming and supporting
the pro-Russian rebels, but Russia denies it. Yatseniuk said
Moscow had not honoured a ceasefire deal signed in Minsk early
this year.

“Russia is not willing to implement Minsk,” Yatseniuk said.

“But we are whiter than white in implementing Minsk. We will
be the last to say Minsk is dead. There are fingerprints of
President Putin on the Minsk deal. He is obliged to implement
it.”

(Reporting by Sujata Rao and Karin Strohecker; editing by
Andrew Roche)