Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

"Being authorized by the people to modify the power of institutions for the sake of Ukrainian prosperity and enjoying the confidence of the nation, we are ready to tell our citizens that the period of destruction will soon be gone," Yanukovych said. The new Ukrainian government will stop the destruction, President Viktor Yanukovych said in an address posted on his Web site on March 11.

"Being authorized by the people to modify the power of institutions for the sake of Ukrainian prosperity and enjoying the confidence of the nation, we are ready to tell our citizens that the period of destruction will soon be gone," Yanukovych said.

The new parliamentary coalition "will bear full responsibility for leading the country out of the political and socioeconomic crisis," he said.

The new government is made up of responsible and highly professional people, he said.

Yanukovych assured the nation that he was being directed exclusively by national interests. "Being the chief of state, I am responsible for decisions which enable us to start working within the shortest time," he said.

"We have an opportunity to return to the path of development and progress," the president concluded.