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Ukraine crisis: PM Yatsenyuk survives no-confidence vote | Ukraine crisis: PM Yatsenyuk survives no-confidence vote |
(35 minutes later) | |
Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has survived a parliamentary no-confidence vote, hours after the president asked him to step down. | |
The prime minister has been criticised over the slow pace of reforms and faces allegations of corruption. | |
Earlier, President Petro Poroshenko said the PM had lost the support of the coalition and the country's trust. | |
Mr Yatsenyuk's public support has eroded amid Ukraine's economic problems. | |
Ukraine teeters a few steps from chaos | |
Ukraine country profile | |
The no-confidence motion required 226 votes to pass, but only 194 out of the 339 MPs supported it. | |
The decision came moments after lawmakers voted the cabinet's work in 2015 unsatisfactory. | |
In a passionate speech to parliament earlier, Mr Yatsenyuk said his government had done all it could under difficult circumstances. | |
"We have built the foundations for a new country. Let's build a new Ukraine: do not stop. Reforms are the only way forward," he said. | |
Troubles from start | |
A former speaker of parliament and foreign minister, Mr Yatsenyuk was one of the main opposition leaders during the massive protests that removed former pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. | |
Only two weeks after Mr Yatsenyuk took up his post, Russia annexed Crimea and, soon after, a violent pro-Moscow insurgency raged in the industrial east. | |
Even though he is credited with helping negotiate a rescue package with Western countries, there has been growing public discontent with the lack of economic progress. | |
Recent opinion polls suggest that support for the prime minister's bloc is at 1%. | |
Mr Yatsenyuk has promised to tackle corruption, but has become the focus of similar accusations, although no concrete evidence has emerged. | |
He has also faced infighting, which culminated with Mr Poroshenko's call for his resignation on Tuesday. The president said "surgical means" were needed to restore trust. | |
Mr Poroshenko heads Ukraine's largest party, and Mr Yatsenyuk the next largest, and both are in the ruling coalition. | |
Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius, seen as a key reformer by the West, resigned earlier this month, claiming that huge quantities of money were being diverted from the government. | |
Western governments have previously expressed concern over the resignation of reform-minded figures. | |
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has threatened to withhold aid money to Ukraine if it does not carry out reforms. | |
Also on Tuesday, the country's controversial prosecutor general Viktor Shokin resigned, following a call from Mr Poroshenko for him to step down. |