A four-party coalition led by President Viktor Yanukovych's Regions Party has been formed in Ukraine, and it proposed Russian-born former finance minister Mykola Azarov as Prime Minister, reports say.
Volodymyr Lytvyn, the Speaker of the Parliament known as the Verhovna Rada, announced Thursday that a coalition agreement had been signed by his bloc, the Regions Party, the People's Party, and the Communist Party.
He claimed that the coalition has 235 deputies in the 450-member Parliament.
Regions Party deputy Mykhailo Chechetov said the new coalition had chosen 62-year-old Azarov, who is a close ally of Yanukovych, as Prime Minister. The Parliament will vote on his nomination later in the day.
Formation of an alternative coalition within a week of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's resignation was made possible following a constitutional amendment earlier this week, making it easier for parties to form coalitions by allowing them to recruit individual deputies rather than just parliamentary blocs.
Tymoshenko's coalition Cabinet was ousted in a no-confidence vote on March 2 dealing a double blow to the 49-year-old blonde leader, who last month lost in a bid to become the country's President.
The development clears the way for a new government committed to the policy programs of Yanukovych who is trying to demonstrate that he will balance relations with Moscow and the West and his commitment to developing relations with Europe.
The Regions Party said the Cabinet line-up might emerge shortly, enabling the ex-Soviet Republic to avoid a snap poll.
Battered by the economic downturn, Ukraine is badly in need of a new stable government to adopt a delayed 2010 budget and restart talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a suspended $16.4 billion bail-out package.
The European Union has pledged Ukraine "more than half a billion euros (more than $6.75 million) in macro-financial assistance" on condition that it agrees on a new cost-cutting plan with the IMF.
In Brussels, during his first official foreign tour, Yanukovych told reporters that "European integration" is a priority for Ukraine's foreign policy.
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.