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Ukrainian ex-president blames ruling party for political crisis

Ukraine's parliament coalition has 217 lawmakers with the required minimum of 226
Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko EPA/TERJE PEDERSEN
Former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko
© EPA/TERJE PEDERSEN

KIEV, February 19. /TASS/. Responsibility for the crisis in Ukraine that paralyzed not only the country’s political sphere lies entirely with the party in power, former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said.

"The political crisis is a shell, and the situation itself looks like the deepest and, in some way, the most hopeless crisis since the beginning of the 1990s. The responsibility for what is happening lies with the political coalition, that is, the parties in power," Ukraine’s Segodnya newspaper quotes Yushchenko as saying.

According to the former president, what politicians lack today is not knowledge but dialogue at all levels and along the entire hierarchy. "When war is raging and the size of our shadow economy is 55%, it is not just the lack of young people whose hearts are bleeding for Ukraine, it is  degradation of the national spirit. When we lose 350% of national currency value within a year and a half, we are opening the second front in the war," Yushchenko said.

On Thursday, the parliamentary coalition virtually broke up. On February 17, the Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) faction announced its withdrawal from the Verkhovna Rada’s majority, and on February 18 the Samopomich (Self Reliance) political party followed its lead. Now the coalition has 217 lawmakers with the required minimum of 226. The Petro Poroshenko Bloc and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front ruling parties are trying to create a new majority with the assistance of the Radical Party. However, the presidential party wants to reform the government up to the prime-minster’s replacement. However, neither Yatsenyuk nor his political force agree to this. Experts predict early parliamentary elections in Ukraine.