Prime Minister of Ukraine Resigns

Mykola Azarov

After series of protests and agitation by the opposition party, Ukrainian Prime Minister, Mykola Azarov has on Tuesday tendered his resignation, saying that he hoped his resignation will help bring resolution to the crisis rocking the country.

The prime minister is resigning after over two months of protests and killings in the country

Reuters reports:

Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov offered his resignation to President Viktor Yanukovich on Tuesday, saying he hoped his departure would help towards a peaceful settlement to two months of unrest which has convulsed the former Soviet republic. 

The 66-year-old Azarov announced his decision as parliament met for an emergency session to work out possible concessions to the opposition to end street protests in the capital Kiev and in other cities in which six people have been killed.

Azarov, a loyal lieutenant of Yanukovich since the latter was elected to power in February 2010, said he was offering to step down "with the aim of creating extra means for finding a social-political compromise, for the sake of a peaceful settlement of the conflict."

But in reality he has been publicly humiliated by Yanukovich's offer at the weekend to give his job to former economy minister Arseny Yatsenyuk, one of the opposition leaders, in an effort to stem the rising protests against his rule.

The opposition has been calling consistently for the resignation of the Azarov government since the onset of the crisis. But opposition leaders have shied away from the offer of top government posts by Yanukovich, seeing it as a trap intended to compromise them in front of their supporters on the streets.

Yatsenyuk, one of a "troika" of opposition leaders, formally turned down the offer of the top government job on Monday night and the question now was whether Yanukovich would accept Azarov's departure or not.

Azarov has steered the heavily indebted economy through hard times over four years, keeping the national currency tightly pegged to the dollar and refusing International Monetary Fund pressure to raise gas prices at home.

He backed the decision in November to walk away from a free trade agreement with the European Union - the move which sparked the mass street protests - and it was Azarov who took the heat in parliament, defending the need for closer economic ties with Russia in a stormy debate with the opposition.