Ukraine's parliament was scheduled to vote Thursday on candidates for a new Cabinet that its proposed head Arseniy Yatsenyuk said would be a government of "political kamikazes."
The Cabinet will have "a short but clear" program: "To preserve and save the country," Yatsenyuk, an opposition leader who has been designated as prime minister, said in comments published on his political party's website.
"I can already say what the fate of all members of the Cabinet will be: They are political kamikazes," he said. "The treasury is empty, it has debts of $75 billion. Ukraine's overall debt is $130 billion. Pensions have not been paid in full for more than a month, the gold and foreign currency reserves have been looted."
Candidates for a new government include investigative journalist Tetyana Chornovol, who reported about corruption in the government of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych. She has been designated as head of an anti-corruption committee.
Another candidate is Dmytro Bulatov, an auto-repair shop owner who led protest motorcades outside the houses of Yanukovych's allies, and who in January had part of his ear cut off after being kidnapped and tortured by an unknown group of men. He has been nominated as youth affairs and sports minister.
A doctor who had treated protesters at the site of the main clashes between protesters and security troops, Olha Bohomolets, has been designated as deputy prime minister for humanitarian affairs.
The finance minister's post could go to Oleksandr Shlapak, who had served as economics and European integration minister in an earlier administration in the early 2000s.
The protests that led to the government change in Ukraine were prompted when the country's Moscow-backed president abandoned a planned deal for European Union association in favor of closer ties to Moscow.
