Parliamentary or bust
Whatever the intentions, Ukraine’s muddled semi-presidential system is unlikely to deliver reform
The appointment of Volodymyr Groysman as Ukraine's new prime minister marks the end of a drawn out process which has been on the cards for at least a couple of months, precipitated by the acrimonious departure of Aivaras Abromavičius, the economy minister, in February, and an abortive earlier attempt to remove incumbent Arseniy Yatsenyuk. President Petro Poroshenko has refused to grant foreign investors their pick, respected Ukrainian-American Finance Minster Natalie Jaresko, who is credited with keeping Ukraine's precarious wartime economy afloat. She will not serve in the new cabinet and is seen as a major loss. The new cabinet is set to be sworn in amidst widespread, but unsurprising, claims abounding that appointments have not been merit-based, and the appointment of a prime minister from the president's regional base has uncomfortable echoes of the Viktor Yanukovych era.
April 14, 2016 - Jonathan Hibberd