Yatsenyuk not to run for Ukrainian president

YEREVAN, February 27. / ARKA /. Arseny Yatsenyuk said he will not run for president of Ukraine.

"I officially declare that I am not going to run for president of Ukraine. And I am ceding the mandate of a people's deputy," Yatsenyuk said at a plenary session on Thursday.

Yatsenyuk, who was approved for the post of Ukraine’s prime minister, said the economic situation in the country would not improve fast.

"The Ukrainian coffers have been embezzled and are empty. I don't promise improvement today or tomorrow. The task of the government is to stabilize the situation," he said.

He said that Ukraine's public debt stood at $75 billion. "In 2010, when Viktor Yanukovych came to power, the debt stood at $38.5 billion," he said.

According to him, over the past three years, "some $20 billion in foreign exchange reserves have been squandered."

Yatseniuk also urged the Verkhovna Rada and the new government to create a National Anti-Corruption Bureau and conduct judicial reform. 

Yatsenyuk called also on the signatories to the Budapest Memorandum to guarantee Ukraine's territorial integrity. 

The Memorandum on Security Assurances in Connection with Ukraine's Accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also known as the Budapest Memorandum, is an international treaty on Ukraine's nuclear-free status concluded between Ukraine, the United States, Russia and the United Kingdom on December 5, 1994. 

The agreement contains provisions guaranteeing Ukraine's sovereignty and security. -0-