Ukraine PM Yatsenyuk survives no confidence vote

Kiev: Ukraine`s embattled Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk survived a no confidence vote in his government Tuesday that came just hours after the president asked him to stand down.

The motion to oust the pro-Western government leader collected only 194 of a required 226 votes in Ukraine`s 450-seat parliament.

President Petro Poroshenko had earlier asked Yatsenyuk to resign because he had lost the public`s trust in his ability to fight corruption and overcome Ukraine`s deep economic malaise.

Recent opinion polls show 70 percent of Ukrainians supporting Yatsenyuk`s ouster and only one percent backing his People`s Front parliamentary bloc.

But Yatsenyuk put up a stiff defence of his record, in a passionate address to lawmakers delivered shortly before the vote.

"We saved this country and I want you to respect that," Yatsenyuk said.

The 41-year-old former banker has been in office since Urkaine`s dramatic February 2014 revolution ousted the ex-Soviet country`s Russian-backed leader and set it on a westward course.

He was credited with helping negotiate Ukraine`s massive Western financial rescue package that helped bolster the government while it was fighting a brutal pro-Russian revolt in the country`s separatist east.

"Dear deputies: we now have a country with full state coffers, an armed Ukrainian army, written-off debts, and paid salaries and pensions," Yatsenyuk said.

"We will hand over the country to a new government with honour and dignity," he concluded before parliament decided to keep him in office.