Ukraine’s new pro-western government could secure some €20 billion in emergency aid after agreeing a bailout with the International Monetary Fund, but will have to persuade the nation to accept painful austerity measures while under enormous domestic and foreign pressure.
Kiev agreed the vital deal with the IMF yesterday, as controversial former premier Yulia Tymoshenko said she would run for the presidency in May, angry protesters demanded the interior minster’s resignation, and 100 countries condemned Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Several hundred supporters of the Right Sector group marched from Kiev’s Independence Square to parliament last night, to try to force Arsen Avakov to step down over this week’s killing by a special police unit of a leading member of the revolutionary nationalist organisation.
Chanting "Avakov out!" and "Brother for brother, blood for blood", some of the masked men struck the doors of parliament with clubs and piled tyres against them – a reminder of the huge barricades of burning tyres they built during months of protests against now ex-president Viktor Yanukovich. Parliament was in session at the time, debating the harsh cutbacks demanded by the IMF in return for up to $18 billion (€13.1 billion) in loans, which the lender said would give Ukraine access to a broader package of international aid that now stands at almost €20 billion.
Energy subsidies to go
Under the agreement, Kiev will have to cut its budget deficit, let the national currency's exchange rate float, tackle bad bank debts and – most painfully – stop subsiding energy prices for domestic and industrial consumers, which will anger ordinary people and big business alike. "The country is on the edge of economic and financial bankruptcy," prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said. "This package of laws is very unpopular, very difficult, very tough. Reforms that should have been done in the past 20 years."
White House spokesman Jay Carney called the deal “a powerful sign of support from the international community for the Ukrainian government, as we help them stabilise and grow their economy, and move their democracy forward”.
Ms Tymoshenko announced that she would run for the presidency in May 25th elections, despite receiving a mixed public response when she returned to Kiev last month, after her controversial jail term was quashed following the collapse of Mr Yanukovich's regime.
“I will be the candidate of Ukrainian unity,” she said yesterday. “The west and centre of Ukraine has always voted for me, but I was born in the east.”
From her hometown of Dnipropetrovsk, Ms Tymoshenko became a leading figure in the murky and dangerous 1990s energy trade in Ukraine, earning the nickname of “Gas Princess”.
While she is an icon of opposition to Mr Yanukovich for some, for many others she is a symbol of a political elite that has now lost all credibility and should be swept away.
She first became prime minister after the 2004 Orange Revolution, but her alliance with then president Viktor Yushchenko descended into perpetual squabbling and political chaos. “I will do everything to ensure that our second European revolution does not lead to distrust, depression and disappointment,” she said, while vowing to win back Crimea from Russian occupation .
The United Nations general assembly yesterday adopted a resolution drafted by Ukraine that declared as invalid Crimea’s referendum on joining Russia and Moscow’s subsequent annexation of the Black Sea peninsula.
The non-binding resolution passed with 100 votes in favour and 11 votes against, with 58 abstentions. More than 20 states did not vote. “I’m very much satisfied with the vote . . . [an] overwhelming majority of nations in the world supported this resolution,” said Ukraine’s foreign minister Andriy Deshchytsia. “I am convinced that a strong vote today will help to deter further aggressive moves.”
