After weeks of political crisis in Kiev, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk has announced his long-expected resignation.

Yatsenyuk made his decision public on Sunday in a televised address, saying he would formally submit his resignation to parliament on Tuesday.

The prime minister has been a highly unpopular figure in Ukraine with his approval ratings languishing in the single-digit range. The public blames him for a ruined economy and the failure to implement reforms he had promised when taking office in February 2014.

The final stages of his tenure were marred by an ugly political scandal when his economy minister, Aivaras Abromavicius, announced his resignation over alleged corruption in the Ukrainian government.

As the crisis unfolded, the ruling coalition in the Ukrainian parliament collapsed. Under Ukrainian law, President Petro Poroshenko can call an early election if a new coalition isn’t formed, but opinion polls say his own party would lose seats in that case as well.

Poroshenko tried to resolve the debacle in the cabinet by calling on Yatsenyuk to resign, but he refused to do so. An attempt to fire him through a parliament vote failed in what was a major embarrassment for the president.

(RT)