Ukraine has overcome political crisis by forming new coalition, says Tymoshenko

10:06

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has described as historic the Tuesday election of a new parliamentary speaker and the forming of a majority coalition at the Verkhovna Rada, the Cabinet press service reported.

"The Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc faction, most of the votes from the Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense faction, and the Volodymyr Lytvyn Bloc faction have overcome a political crisis by building a new parliamentary coalition and electing Lytvyn the Verkhovna Rada chairman," Tymoshenko was quoted as saying.

Three political parties one of which is led by the president and another by the prime minister formed a new majority coalition in Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday, the legislature's newly elected chairman said.

The coalition comprises President Viktor Yuschenko's Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense (OU-PSD), Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (BYT) and the Lytvyn Bloc, a party led by Volodymyr Lytvyn, who was elected chairman of the legislature after the coalition came into being.

The coalition was the result of difficult talks, Lytvyn told the legislature.