Ukranian President Leonid Kuchma sacked his government today and named a loyalist regional governor to replace Prime Minister Anatoly Kinakh.
Viktor Yanukovitch (55) has governed Donetsk with an iron hand since 1997 and is considered a loyal supporter of the president.
Kinakh (48) had been prime minister since May 2001. Despite a recent pickup in the economy, analysts have criticised him for failing to carry out the necessary reforms.
The Kinakh government had succeeded in maintaining economic growth, but was accused by the President of failure to solve social problems.
Tainted by scandal and accused of ordering the assassination of opposition journalist Georgy Gongadze in 2000, Kuchma has seen his popularity ratings plunge in the three years since his re-election.
In recent months he has come under fire from both the political opposition, which has demanded he step down amid mass street protests, and from Washington, which has accused him of personally approving radar sales to Iraq.
President Kuchma also announced he will attend next week's NATO summit in Prague, but the military alliance repeated that he would not be welcome.
