What was the composition of the new Ukrainian government after the EuroMaidan Revolution, and what were its first steps?
Parliament approved the new cabinet in the aftermath of the EuroMaidan Revolution, on February 27. The night before their confirmation by the parliament, the incumbent ministers went to the Maidan seeking a symbolic popular mandate.
Indeed, in many respects it was a revolutionary government, as it included several prominent Maidan activists in its ranks, such as the new minister of culture, the actor Yevhen Nishchuk. The broad, pro-EuroMaidan parliamentary coalition guaranteed the government's confirmation, but only two parties delegated their members to serve in the cabinet: six ministers represented Tymoshenko's Fatherland Party, which was increasingly controlled by Yatseniuk, and three came from the ranks of the radical nationalist Freedom party. An equal number of ministers, nine, had no party affiliation. Yatseniuk himself became prime minister in a nearly unanimous confirmation vote.Inheriting an almost bankrupt country, Yatseniuk referred to his cabinet's tasks as a “kamikaze mission.“4 He had in mind the political cost of painful reforms that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had requested in exchange for a substantial financial bailout, but the warlike metaphor acquired a new meaning almost immediately. The cabinet had barely enough time to unveil its program, featuring closer links with the European Union, economic reforms, and a complete rebuilding of the corrupt justice system, before the Russian takeover of the Crimea took place, followed by the war in the Donbas. For the next year the government operated in a state of emergency, trying to keep the economy afloat while funding the war.
However, in April 2014 the IMF approved a US$17 billion loan to Ukraine with US$3.2 billion made available immediately. The Ukrainian government promised to carry out deep structural reforms and fiscal tightening, which could not really be implemented during the war.
The ongoing devaluation of the hryvnia, however, resulted in the partial fulfillment of the IMF's main demand: deep cuts to the state's social expenditures, such as pensions and subsidies.In July 2014 the broad parliamentary coalition collapsed, ostensibly because of disagreements over military expenditures and budget cuts, although it appears that the prime minister and the president were looking for an opportunity to revamp the cabinet and renew parliament through snap elections that such a crisis would trigger. Indeed, Yatseniuk stayed on as caretaker prime minister. The war in the Donbas escalated during the three months prior to the elections, and the economic crisis deepened. The government did not have any internal means to fund the war effort, other than by printing more money and initiating a fire-sale privatization of remaining state assets, although the latter did not proceed very far and was likely more of a declaration of intent in order to satisfy Western creditors.
It took the Ukrainian parliament a month after the elections of October 26, 2014 to form a new coalition, which now relied on cooperation between the Poroshenko Bloc and Yatseniuk's new party, the People's Front. These two forces took the most influential portfolios in the new cabinet, with some less important ministries reserved for the three minor coalition partners: Self-Reliance, the Radical Party, and Tymoshenko's debilitated Fatherland. The Ukrainian leadership also took the unusual step of recruiting three foreigners not implicated in the dirty business of Ukrainian politics to run the ministries with the greatest potential for corruption. Natalie Jaresko, an American investment banker of Ukrainian descent, became minister of finance, the Lithuanian banker Aivaras Abromavicius was confirmed as minister of economy and trade, and the former minister of health of the Republic of Georgia, Alexander Kvitashvili, took over the same portfolio in Ukraine.
The new cabinet was sworn in on December 2, 2014, just as the first Minsk ceasefire collapsed and fierce fighting resumed in the Donbas. During the next two months, the hryvnia went over a cliff, causing the population to empty supermarket shelves. The government desperately needed the next installment of the IMF loan, but it was only after some painful military defeats and a second Minsk agreement in February 2015 that it could push through some austerity measures, making the funding possible. On March 2 the parliament approved measures that would see household energy bills triple and also reduce some categories of state pensions. The IMF immediately disbursed US$5 billion with another US$5 billion promised within a year, an announcement that halted the hryvnia's free-fall. Yet, all sides understood that Ukraine needed a lasting peace to start serious economic reforms.