KIEV, March 22. /TASS/. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk is not planning to leave office, leader of the Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) faction in the parliament and former premier Yulia Tymoshenko said on Tuesday.

"I think that they are playing for time, the authorities practically leave Yatsenyuk in office and amid that the country is deceived by some new names of the next prime minister," Tymoshenko told the 112 Ukraine TV channel.

"I can say with competence that Yatsenyuk is not going to tender resignation today," she said, adding that "everything has been already paid so that this government stays." "Yatsenyuk is trying to remain in the premier’s seat by all means."

Ukraine’s news outlet Apostrof said on Monday citing well-informed sources that Yatsenyuk has agreed to step down on condition that his party, People’s Front, retains to ministerial posts, with Arsen Avakov and Pavlo Petrenko continuing as interior and justice ministers, respectively.

Apart from that, according to Apostrof, the People’s Front wants to have its speaker in the Verkhovna Rada (parliament). So far, the candidate for the latter position has not yet been named as this issue is being discussed. Possible candidates are Andrei Parubiy, the current first deputy speaker, and Maxim Burbak, the leader of the People’s Front faction.

According to the source, Yatsenyuk plans to announce his resignation at a government meeting on Wednesday. On the same day, the prop-presidential force, the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, plans to hold a congress which is expected to support the candidature of Verkhovna Rada speaker Volodymyr Groysman as Ukraine’s next prime minister. Parliament voting on that matter is planned for March 24.