Ukraine’s Prime Minister Says He Plans to Resign
Prime Minister Leonid Kuchma accused Ukraine’s president Saturday of stripping him of his powers and said he will press ahead with plans to resign, the official Ukrinform news agency reported.
The agency said Kuchma told industrialists in central Ukraine that he had no room to pursue his policies after President Leonid Kravchuk placed himself at the head of government.
“In Ukraine, the prime minister’s base has been eliminated. The government is now headed by the president,” it quoted Kuchma as saying.
“Therefore at the next session of Parliament, I intend to make a fully grounded statement about my resignation,” he said.
The statement by Kuchma, who has been locked in a monthlong constitutional battle with Kravchuk, threw further confusion over plans for market reform in the former Soviet republic.
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