Ukraine President's Premier Nominee Struggles to Muster Support

Ukrainian Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Hroisman, backed by President Petro Poroshenko to head a new government to lead the country out of a political tumult that’s halted the flow of international financial aid, is struggling to assemble a parliamentary majority as parties bicker before a vote on his candidacy next week.

Even lawmakers from Poroshenko’s own party said they haven’t yet decided whether to support Hroisman, as did those from the Radical Party, ex-Premier Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna party and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front after talks in Kiev on Friday. A parliamentary majority must approve his appointment, with the legislature set to reconvene Tuesday. Yatsenyuk, who must also step aside, said he’d “accept any decision.”

“The partners need to agree on the coalition accord, and this may not be very easy,“ Yuriy Yakymenko, an analyst at Razumkov Center for Economic and Political Studies, said by phone from Kiev. The groups need to sort out policy proposals -- some of which may be incompatible with the terms of an international bailout -- the terms for Yatsenyuk’s departure and the distribution of Cabinet posts, he said.