Yatsenyuk states Poroshenko did not urge him to resign
The Prime Minister of Ukraine, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, in an interview on Ukrainian television on Friday evening, claimed that Ukraine's President, Petro Poroshenko, did not call for him to resign.
According to him, Poroshenko called for a reformation of the government in his statement, not his resignation. "Then, the political forces began circulate ideas concerning my resignation," Yatsenyuk said. The Ukrainian Prime Minister noted that his relationship with the President is really complicated, but "in modern conditions there cannot be even a question of personal relations."
When asked why the deputies did not support the resignation of government officials, Arseniy Yatsenyuk said, "A number of MPs understood the risks for the country – chaos, destabilization. This would not have ended the current parliamentary elections. The second reason is that the deputies didn't want to force an early election."
On the 16th of February, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine voted on a resolution based on the unsatisfactory work of the Cabinet of Ministers in 2016. However, there were not enough votes to pass the resolution of no confidence.
On the same day, Petro Poroshenko urged Arseniy Yatsenyuk and the Prosecutor General, Viktor Shokin, to resign in order to restore confidence in the government.