Ukrainian opposition leader Yatseniuk demands incumbent president's resignation

12:18, 22.02.2014 1 min read

The fact that Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has not signed into law a number of bills that the Verkhovna Rada passed on Friday can serve as solid enough grounds for his resignation, Batkivschyna faction leader Arseniy Yatseniuk said.

"The failure to sign the laws is absolutely valid grounds for Yanukovych's immediate resignation," Yatseniuk said at the Rada on Saturday.

The president was supposed to sign the bills passed on Friday "as early as yesterday," he said.

Yatseniuk also suggested that the parliamentary faction leaders should gather and pass a resolution on the parliament's full responsibility for the situation in the country.

The parliament had passed a number of bills on Friday, including those on reinstating the 2004 constitution, on exempting the participants in the public unrest from criminal liability, and on freeing former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is serving a 7-year prison term for abusing her office in signing gas supply contracts with Russia in 2009.