Leader of Petro Poroshenko Bloc says coalition in Ukraine's parliament actually dead

16:50, 18.02.2016 1 min read

Yuriy Lutsenko, the leader of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction in the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, has said that the coalition disintegrated de facto after the Samopomich faction said that it is exiting the ruling parliamentary majority.

"Actually, what we see is the death of the coalition, not in law, but de facto, which occurred not today but a week ago. Frankly speaking, there is nothing new in the statement made by the Samopomich today. It has simply formalized what we have all known for the two weeks now," Lutsenko told reporters in Kyiv on Thursday.

"A coalition is created by way of signing the coalition agreement by MPs," he added. "As far as I know, not a single MP has recalled it [the signature under the agreement] yet. Even after the Radical Party said that it's exiting the coalition. [... ] Neither [Oleh] Liashko, nor his fellows in the party recalled the signatures," Lutsenko said.