Three more BYT members join coalition in Rada

Members of the Ukrainian parliament Andriy Verevsky, Ivan Denkovych and Oleksandr Shepelev – all three from the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko faction – have joined the majority coalition in parliament.

Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn announced this while opening the session on Tuesday.

The Stability and Reform coalition now has 250 deputies, including 19 members of the BYT faction and eight members of the Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense faction.

On March 11, 2010, the Verkhovna Rada formed the Stability and Reforms coalition. The coalition was formed by factions of the Regions Party, the Bloc of Lytvyn, the Communist Party of Ukraine, and six independent MPs from the Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defence Bloc and four from the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko. Then the coalition numbered 235. Later, 13 more members of the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko faction and two of the Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense joined the coalition.

In addition, Oleksandr Kyrychko and Leonid Isayev of the Regions Party took the oath of people's deputies at the Verkhovna Rada's meeting on Tuesday. They replaced Oleksiy Kostusev and Serhiy Larin as members of the Regions Party faction and of the Stability and Reforms coalition.

As reported, Larin was appointed head of Kirovohrad regional state administration and Kostusev chairman of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine.