First Azarov government

Termination

On December 3, 2012 the government became a caretaker government after Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich accepted the resignation of prime minister Mykola Azarov and his government following the 28 October 2012 parliamentary election. A number of government members, including Prime Minister Azarov, were elected to parliament in that election. In order to get these parliamentary mandates they were obliged to submit documents on the dismissal from their previous job to the Central Election Commission within 20 days after the election (by December 3).

On 9 December 2012 Yanukovych nominated Azarov for a new term as prime minister. This nomination was approved by parliament on 13 December 2012. On 24 December 2012 the second Azarov government was appointed by President Yanukovych.

In January 2013 President Yanukovych stated the government "has not completely fulfilled the assigned tasks on ensuring the introduction of reform and economic growth. This led to the fact that the results in 2012 were much worse than expected".

Controversy and criticism

Azarov's immediate predecessor Yulia Tymoshenko stated on the day the cabinet was elected "this government is completely made up of Ukrainian oligarchs"; she predicted the cabinet actions would lead to "megacorruption, the closure of strategic state programs, pressure on small and middle business and a return to stagnation and the absence of any reforms".

According to a February 2010 poll by the Kiev Gorshenin Institute of Management Issues most Ukrainians wanted not a politician for prime minister but "a professional premier, who will implement unpopular reforms".

Ukraine's state budget for 2010 was adopted by parliament after a ten-minute-long hearing of the bill which consisted of a report by the finance minister and the head of the parliament's budget committee. The Verkhovna Rada 2010 budget was not presented at a parliament meeting, but approved on May 14, 2010.

Constitutional Court ruling

According to former president Victor Yushchenko the March 9, 2010 parliamentary amendment that made it possible for individual members of a parliamentary faction to join a coalition violated the Ukrainian Constitution, former Minister of Internal Affairs Yuriy Lutsenko accused Yanukovych of "trying to buy members of parliament for a new coalition" (President Viktor Yanukovych accused Lutsenko of badly handling the affairs at the Ministry of Internal Affairs before appointing Anatolii Mohyliov to Lutsenko's old position.) and Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc lawmaker Serhiy Mishchenko stated "that the Verkhovna Rada had shown to the average citizen a bad example of how to violate the country’s laws and Constitution". Yushchenko did sent a letter to Yanukovych with a request to veto the law on March 10. Yanukovych signed the law nevertheless. 56 lawmakers filed a challenge to the law who made these amendments possible on March 11, 2010 at the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. On March 16, 2010 Minister of Justice Oleksandr Lavrynovych stated that even if the Constitutional Court rules the amendments unconstitutional the format of the Ukrainian parliamentary coalition will remain unchanged because "the Constitutional Court's ruling becomes valid on the day of its announcement, not yesterday or the day before yesterday" and the Constitutional Court's ruling will apply only to measures intended to establish a new coalition in Ukraine in the future. On March 26, 2010 President Yanukovych told a delegation from the European Parliament "If the decision of the Constitutional Court will be that the coalition was formed illegally, then I will take a decision on a snap election, I will never go down the path of breaching the constitution that is in force". The Constitutional Court reviewing the case late March 2010. On urgent matters the court rules within weeks but on matters deemed less urgent it can take months or even longer. On March 29, 2010 former premier and Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc leader Yulia Tymoshenko accused "Representatives of Yanukovych" of trying to bribe and blackmail Constitutional Court judges in order to get a ruling that legitimates the coalition and the government. This was denied by Yanukovych's Party of Regions.

On April 8, 2010 the Constitutional Court ruled that the coalition supporting the Azarov government in parliament had been formed legally. The shadow government called the Constitutional Court ruling "cynical, hypocritical, and illegal".

Corruption

The Azorov government stated that it will fight corruption. However several of its members are assigned to two or more government positions, and, of course, are paid for them. That fact reflects direct disregard for the Constitution of Ukraine. Some of the members do not even qualify to the assigned positions either as in case with Valeriy Khoroshkovskiy who was elected to the Supreme Council of Justice. Some of the members of the government received their government assignments without a basic knowledge of the state language as in case with the Minister of Internal Affairs Mohyliov. The President Yanukovych gave him two months (until August 2010) to learn the language.

Opposition government formation

On March 16, eight parliamentarian parties signed an application for the establishment of an association of opposing political forces to the ruling Azarov government. Among the eight opposition parties are All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland", Rukh, European Party of Ukraine, People's Self-Defense, Reforms and Order Party, Motherland Defenders Party, Christian-Democratic Union, and Ukrainian Social-Democratic Party. Tymoshenko immediately nominated a prime minister for the future opposition government (so called shadow government), while the leader of the European Party Mykola Katerynchuk suggests not to rush and consolidate all possible political forces in a single formed opposition government. On March 31, 2010 all members of this government were named. It is headed by parliamentarian Serhiy Sobolev of Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko. Its vice premier, Volodymyr Stretovych, was dismissed on 7 February 2011 because "he had finally taken the side of the government".

Arseniy Yatsenyuk formed another oppositional government in March 2010.

On 8 August 2011 All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland", Rukh, European Party of Ukraine, People's Self-Defense, Reforms and Order Party, Motherland Defenders Party, Civil Position and Front for Change formed the Dictatorship Resistance Committee "to better coordinate our efforts".

Composition

On March 11, 2010, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved the structure of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Note, Tihipko even though is a leader of the Strong Ukraine party, he was elected to Cabinet as unaffiliated. Strong Ukraine in Verkhovna Rada is not an independent party. The same goes with Vasyl Tsushko who was a former member of the Socialist Party of Ukraine at the time of his appointment (he became the leader of that party in July 2010); Tsushko was appointed on quote of the Communist Party.

The Cabinet originally consisted of 29 ministers, four more than the previous government, but has since been trimmed down. At the time of installation the Cabinet contained the highest number of ministers in Europe, and ranked second in Europe in terms of the number of its vice premiers. 8 out of the original 29 Cabinet members were born in Donetsk and the Donetsk Oblast.

The Cabinet was (also at the time of its installation) Europe's only government that has no female members in its composition till Raisa Bohatyryova was appointed Minister of Healthcare and Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine on 14 February 2012. It was the first Ukrainian government without a female minister.

As of May 21, 2010 the Cabinet is planning to create a "Ministry of Science, Technologies and Innovation of Ukraine".

Changes since June 2010

On June 2, 2010 deputy-minister of Environmental Protection Bogdan Presner was sacked for accepting a bribe of $200,000 (he was sentenced to nine years in prison in October 2011). On June 17, 2010 Minister on Communal Living Oleksandr Popov (Party of Regions) was replaced by Yuriy Hivrich.

On July 2, 2010 Minister of Environmental Protection Viktor Boiko (Bloc Lytvyn) was replaced by Mykola Zlochevskiy and Vice Prime Minister Volodymyr Seminozhenko was fired by the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) the same day. A draft resolution proposing the dismissal of Semynozhenko was submitted by lawmaker Olha Bodnar of Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko. On July 10, 2010 Minister of Extraordinary Situations Nestor Shufrych was dismissed by Verkhovna Rada. For his dismissal voted 256 deputies. However Viktor Yanukovych found a new assignment for Shufrych and appointed him as the assistant to the secretary of the Council for National Security. Shufrych's duties were temporary assigned to Volodymyr Antonets till Mikhail Bolotskikh was appointed acting minister on July 23, 2010. Soon after the motion to overturn the 2004 Constitutional amendments was filed on July 14 by the representatives of the Azarov Government, Vasyl Tsushko, previously as an unaffiliated member of the government, was elected the leader of the Socialist Party of Ukraine (extra parliamentarian party, non-coalition) on July 24, 2010.

On October 13, 2010 President Yanukovych sacked two deputy prime ministers (Viktor Slauta and Volodymyr Sivkovich). The sackings were the first case when Yanukovych used the powers granted to him by this month's constitutional court ruling when 2004 constitutional amendments were overturned.

On November 12, 2010 President Yanukovych appointed Viktor Baloha (United Centre) Minister of Emergencies and Minister of the Protection of the Population from the Chernobyl disaster. According to Baloha this did not mean his party would join the coalition. Early 2010 United Centre had rejected any possibility of joining a parliamentary coalition with the Communist Party of Ukraine.

Another mayor reshuffle took place in December 2010 which reduced the number of ministers This was part of an administrative reform set in motion by Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych with the aim to reduce the number of civil servants in Ukraine. (see below Yanukovych Administration Reform)

A number of deputy ministers were dismissed early April 2011.

Minister of Health Zynoviy Mytnyk was dismissed on May 17, 2011 because he had "failed to properly organize the work of the ministry"; Oleksandr Anishchenko was appointed for the post on May 24, 2010.

Anatolii Mohyliov was replaced as Minister of Internal Affairs by Vitaliy Zakharchenko in November 2011.

Minister of Finance Fedir Yaroshenko resigned on 18 January 2012 and was replaced by Valeriy Khoroshkovsky the same day.

Minister of Defence Mykhailo Yezhel was sacked by President Yanukovich on 8 February 2012 and replaced by Dmytro Salamatin the same day

Raisa Bohatyryova was appointed Minister of Healthcare and Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine on 14 February 2012; she partly changed places with former First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine-Minister of Economic Development and Trade Andriy Klyuyev who became Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine in her place while Oleksandr Anischenko lost his job as health minister.

On 22 February 2012 Khoroshkovsky was reshuffled to First Vice Prime Minister-Minister and dismissed as finance minister Yuriy Kolobov was appointed finance minister on 28 February 2012. On 9 March 2012 President Yanukovych stated he wanted Petro Poroshenko to work in the government on the post of economic development and trade minister. Poroshenko was appointed economic development and trade minister of Ukraine by Yanukovych on 23 March 2012.

Vice Prime Minister (Minister of Social Policy) Serhii Tihipko became a member of Party of Regions when that party merged with his former party Strong Ukraine on 17 March 2012; Strong Ukraine thus had no longer a minister in this Cabinet.

Mykola Zlochevsky was dismissed from the post of Ecology and Natural Resources Minister and appointed as the deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council on 20 April 2012.

20 November 2012 Viktor Baloha resigned as Ministers of Emergencies because he preferred to take in the seat in the Ukrainian Parliament he had won in the October 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election.

Policy

The aims of the cabinet are:

Other priorities of the government are the preparations for expected flooding, preparations for spring agricultural work and the improvement of medical services.

In order to increase state revenues with at least Hryvnya 10 billion the government is planning to step up privatization in 2010.

Led by the Party of Regions faction in March 2010 a draft law on the judiciary and a new criminal procedural code was shelved and the introduction of anti-corruption legislation was pushed back from April 2010 to January 2011 by the Verkhovna Rada.

On November 30, 2010 Yanukovych vetoed a new tax code made by the Azarov Government and earlier approved by the Verkhovna Rada but protested against in rallies across Ukraine (one of the largest protests since the 2004 Orange Revolution). Yanukovych signed a new Tax Code on December 3, 2010.

in an (Ukraine’s) economy analysis of March 2014 The Economist claims that poor economic policies by the Azarov Government had weakened the state’s finances.

Yanukovych Administration Reform

On December 9, 2010 the President of Ukraine reloaded a new government. According to the decree, the number of ministries was reduced from 20 to 16 and the number of cabinet employees (1,174 people at the time) is to be more than halved.