Following a resounding victory for pro-Western parties in October, Ukraine's new parliament has convened for the first time. It is set to select a prime minister and speaker, reports GHN based on DW.
In Kyiv on Thursday, Ukraine's members of parliament gathered to begin the process of confirming a new government. The session was its first since the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych in February, after which interim leaders governed the country.
Violence between pro-West and pro-Russia supporters began last year on Maidan Square as mass popular protests spiraled out of control. The movement forced the departure of the previous government and soon saw the incursion of Moscow in Crimea, where Russia said it was supporting ethnic Russians who now feared Kyiv. Soon thereafter, fighting broke out in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian separatist rebels and the Ukrainian military, claiming over 4,300 lives.
At its first sitting on Thursday, the Ukrainian parliament - known as the Verkohovna Rada - held a moment of silence to remember those who have died in the unrest over the past year, with nearly 1,000 having been killed in eastern Ukraine since a truce was agreed in September.
Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk was to be confirmed in his post on Thursday, as was a parliament speaker.
Yatsenyuk's party came in second in October elections, behind President Petro Poroshenko's party, which holds some 419 seats in parliament. Last Friday, both of the leaders' parties agreed to enter in a coalition with three other pro-Western factions to form a new government.