The Prime Minister of the Ukraine has tendered his resignation to the country’s president, Viktor Yanukovych. The cabinet has also resigned. Arseniy Yatsenyuk, leader of the opposition Fatherland party, will become the new Prime Minister in a brokered deal between the president and the opposition. Parliament has vacated the country’s brutal anti-protest law. Demonstrators in Independence Square applauded the announcement. The cabinet will remain in place for 60 days while a new government is formed.
Parliament adjourned after the vote on the protest law and is due to discuss the issue of granting an amnesty to convicted protesters.
Mr Yanukovych offered an amnesty only if protesters cleared barricades and stopped attacking government buildings.
In his resignation statement, Prime Minister Azarov said: “To create additional opportunities for social and political compromise and for a peaceful solution to the conflict, I made a personal decision to ask the president of Ukraine to accept my resignation as prime minister of Ukraine.”
The government had “done everything to ensure the peaceful resolution of the conflict” and would do “everything possible to prevent bloodshed, an escalation of violence, and violation of citizen’s rights”, he said.