Ukraines suspended prime minister tendered his resignation Tuesday July 1, an aide said, and President Leonid Kuchma was reported to have accepted it. Pavlo Lazarenkos decision was reported by the television program TSN, which cited an aide to the prime minister. The Interfax news agency, citing unidentified government sources, said Kuchma had accepted the resignation and ordered the appropriate document be drafted. Kuchma suspended Lazarenko nearly two weeks ago for the duration of a sudden illness, a decision widely expected to lead to the ministers ouster. Lazarenko, 44, was still in the hospital Tuesday. Since his suspension, doctors have diagnosed him as suffering from varicose veins. They have said they might operate in the near future. In his resignation papers, Lazarenko cited his inability to work due to his illness, but the resignation appeared to be an attempt to save face by avoiding being forced out of office. Before the suspension, Kuchma had been under increasing pressure to fire Lazarenko, seen by many in Ukraine and the West as a culprit in the continuing economic decline of the former Soviet republic. Since his appointment in May, 1996, Lazarenko and his government have been unable to push Western-backed reforms past Parliament, and Ukraines economic decline has shown little sign of letting up. Viktor Pynzenyk, the economic reforms minister who resigned in frustration earlier this year, accused the Lazarenko government of lacking the political will to push the market-oriented measures needed to boost the ailing economy. Lazarenko, who has been accused of financial misdeeds, has also been seen at home and abroad as emblematic of the high-level corruption that critics say has blocked reforms and stifled crucial foreign and internal investment. Since Lazarenkos suspension, First Deputy Prime Minister Vasyl Durdynets has been acting prime minister.
