In Ukraine, Naming of Interim Government Gets Mixed Response

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORNFEB. 26, 2014

The New York Times

KIEV, Ukraine — Standing before a crowd of tens of thousands in Independence Square, the center of the three-month civic uprising that ousted President Viktor F. Yanukovych, the lawmakers temporarily controlling Ukraine announced an interim government on Wednesday night to be led by Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, a veteran public official.

The public presentation of Mr. Yatsenyuk, who will serve as acting prime minister, and more than 20 other proposed cabinet members, was a frenetic effort by establishment politicians to win the backing of the street protesters, whose persistence in the face of the deaths of more than 80 people last week in clashes with the police ultimately forced Mr. Yanukovych from power.

As the names of the proposed ministers were read from a stage — with flowers and candles blanketing the square in memory of the dead — it became clear just how completely the ordinary people on the street had seized control of the direction of Ukraine. Desperate for the crowd’s legitimacy, officials felt compelled to present the slate on stage in the square before putting it up for a vote by Parliament.

The reaction from the crowd was decidedly mixed.

Jeers and whistles greeted some established politicians, and cheers for some figures with no government experience chosen because of their role in the uprising. But with Ukraine hurtling toward an economic catastrophe, and no time for protracted negotiations, the gesture of deference to the crowd seemed sufficient to move the process forward.

“We need to change these faces,” said Alyona Murashko, a 28-year-old marketing specialist who was carrying groceries and had stopped in the square on her way home from work. Ms. Murashko said that she approved of the choice of Olga Bogomolets, a doctor, singer and activist, as deputy prime minister for humanitarian affairs, and of Tatyana Chornovil, an activist and journalist, to lead Ukraine’s anticorruption bureau.

Ms. Murashko, however, said she opposed Mr. Yatsenyuk and many of the other choices. “I wouldn’t like to see him even temporarily,” she said. “No one from current political parties.” Ms. Murashko said she was glad that presidential elections would be held in May but wanted parliamentary elections “as soon as possible.”

Among those eliciting loud boos was Oleksandr V. Turchynov, who was elected by colleagues on Saturday as the new speaker of Parliament and who has been authorized to carry out the duties of president, effectively putting him in charge of the country. Mr. Turchynov was not part of the slate announced Wednesday night and will continue in his position even after the interim government is approved.

On the whole, the makeup of the interim government suggested that Ukraine would now move more swiftly to improve ties with the West, potentially reviving the sweeping political and trade agreements with the European Union that Mr. Yanukovych scuttled in November, setting off protests in Kiev and other cities.

Mr. Yatsenyuk is an ally of Mr. Yanukovych’s archrival, the former prime minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko. Ms. Tymoshenko was released from a prison hospital and is expected to run for president in the May elections, although she has received only a lukewarm reception in recent days. Many Ukrainians say they view her as too closely connected to the country’s existing political system, which has been hobbled by corruption and mismanagement for years.

Mr. Yatsenyuk, by contrast, is largely viewed as an able technician with a firm grasp of economic policy and foreign affairs. He has served as speaker of Parliament, foreign minister, economics minister and acting head of the central bank. Ukraine’s economy is in tatters, and it is in desperate need of a rescue package from the International Monetary Fund, which has said it will demand painful austerity measures and long-delayed economic changes in return for any assistance.

A $15 billion bailout that Mr. Yanukovych had secured from Russia has been suspended as a result of the recent political upheaval, which the Kremlin views with alarm.

Mr. Yatsenyuk was one of three opposition leaders in Parliament who were among the chief organizers of the street demonstrations. Another, the former boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, who leads a party called the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform, has already announced his candidacy for president. The third, Oleg Tyagnybok, is the leader of the nationalist Svoboda party, which is popular in Western Ukraine but has limited support elsewhere.

Officials in Parliament, led by Mr. Turchynov, had struggled to reach a deal on the interim government in part because of the demands by civic activists that it include a number of people who did not have previous experience in public life.

Among the choices in this regard were Dmitro Bulatov, the leader of a group called AutoMaidan, who was designated as minister of youth and sport; and Eugene Nyschuk, an actor who has served as M.C. from the stage in Independence Square throughout the protests and who was selected as culture minister.

The crowd, however, was divided even on these choices, underscoring the near-impossible challenge faced by officials hoping to win the approval of the street.

Volodymyr Hrysiv, 36, an unemployed martial arts instructor from Kiev, said he had been part of the protests from the very beginning and had booed Mr. Turchynov.

“I did not see him here last week when bullets were firing,” Mr. Hrysiv said. “I have not seen him earlier during fights on Hrushevskovo Street. Some people sacrifice their lives, while others are now dividing seats.”

Still, many people in the crowd acknowledged that there was no way to please everyone.

Officials said that Andriy Deshcytsia, a veteran Ukrainian diplomat, had been chosen as minister of foreign affairs.

Andrey Parubiy, a member of Parliament and leader of the protest movement, was chosen as the head of the national security council, while Arsen Avakov, who is already working as interior minister, was chosen to remain in that post.

Correction: February 27, 2014

An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of Ukraine’s acting minister of foreign affairs. It is Andriy Deshcytsia, not Andrey Dashchitsa.

Oksana Lyachnyska contributed reporting from New York.