The newly-elected Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada confirmed Arseniy Yatsenyuk as prime minister by 341 votes at its first session on Thursday, Nov. 27.
In particular, Yatsenyuk’s candidacy was supported by 138 members of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction, 83 People’s Front faction, one the Opposition Bloc, 32 Samopomich Union, 21 the Radical Party of Oleh Liashko, 19 the People’s Will Group, 18 Batkivschyna, and 16 the Economic Development Group.
Speaking at the parliament before the voting, Yatsenyuk said, “You can fight an army and you can defeat an army, but you can never defeat the Ukrainian people.” He said he was ready to start forming a new government, noting that 2015 would be a much harder year for Ukraine than 2014.
Yatsenyuk, 40, started his political career in 2001 when he was appointed an acting minister and then minister of economy of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. He moved to Kyiv in 2003 to become a first deputy chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine. Then he served as acting National Bank of Ukraine chairman from July 2004 to February 2005 and as first deputy head of the Odesa regional administration from March to September 2005.
In 2005-2006, Yatsenyuk served as the economy minister; he has been a parliamentarian in two Radas since 2007 and was its chairman from December 2007 to November 2008. In 2007, he also served as foreign minister for nearly nine months.
In 2009, Yatsenyuk became the leader of the party Front for Change, which ran in the 2012 parliamentary elections sharing a common ticket with the Batkivschyna party, and all Front Zmin members suspended their party membership at the time.
Running in presidential elections in 2010, Yatsenyuk came in fourth.
In 2013, Yatsenyuk led the political council of the Batkivschyna party. In September 2014, he led the new party People’s Front together with Oleksandr Turchynov.
Yatsenyuk was appointed prime minister of Ukraine in February 2014.
