MINSK, Belarus -- Ukraine's president dismissed the billionaire governor of his country's Dnipropetrovsk region, escalating a clash that has potential to complicate the government's efforts to counter pro-Russia rebels and fix an economy devastated by war.
President Petro Poroshenko signed a dismissal order for Igor Kolomoisky, Ukraine's third-richest man, after the former governor's security guards barricaded themselves in the headquarters of a state oil company last week.
The dispute with Kolomoisky, who has funded a group of volunteer troops fighting on the government's side in Ukraine's easternmost regions, opens a new challenge for an administration struggling to prevent a separatist advance and heal an economy that contracted 14.8 percent last quarter from a year earlier. His support was important for Kiev in maintaining control over industry-heavy Dnipropetrovsk.
"Kolomoisky's resignation is unlikely to be the last chapter in this standoff and his departure represents a risk for regional stability," said Otilia Dhand, an analyst at Teneo Intelligence.
Kolomoisky's departure follows a call from Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's government for private security services to disarm.
Last week, Kolomoisky's guards barricaded themselves at the headquarters of oil company VAT Ukrnafta, in which he holds a minority share, after Poroshenko signed legislation that allowed state representatives at NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy, the company's majority owner, to replace Kolomoisky's management team.
"This step by the president should become the beginning of a crusade against the influence of all oligarchs on politics and their enrichment at the cost of state resources," Mustafa Nayem, a lawmaker in Poroshenko's party, said in his blog.
Yatsenyuk, whose government is trying to overhaul the economy under a $17.5 billion International Monetary Fund aid deal, vowed Monday to crack down on "total corruption and smuggling" and prevent an "oligarch-supported political crisis."
Ukrainian police detained the head of Ukraine's Emergency Service civil defense and rescue body, Sergiy Bochkovsky, on suspicion of corruption during a televised Cabinet meeting Wednesday. Bochkovsky was suspected of buying fuel at an artificially high price, said a representative of the Interior Ministry who did not identify himself.
At the same time, the administration is locked in talks with bondholders in a bid to extract as much as $15.2 billion in savings by extending the maturity, cutting the principal, and reducing the coupons on its outstanding debt.
Also Wednesday, a patrol from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe visited Novoazovsk, a rebel-controlled town near the Russian border, for the first time since November. The time it took the monitors to reach the town highlights the difficulty of enforcing a truce agreed with pro-Russia insurgents last month.
On Wednesday, the U.S. delivered 10 armored vehicles to Ukraine as part of a military support program intended to assist the fight against the separatist forces in the country's east. Poroshenko's office has said the U.S. is set to eventually provide 230 Humvees.
President Barack Obama's administration has said it will provide Ukraine's military with $75 million in nonlethal aid, but has refrained from offering lethal equipment despite calls from Congress to do so.
Meanwhile, about 2,000 opposition activists marched Wednesday through the Belarusian capital to condemn Russia's policy and express solidarity with Ukraine.
Information for this article was contributed by Aliaksandr Kudrytski and Volodymyr Verbyany of Bloomberg News and by Yuras Karmanau and staff members of The Associated Press.
A Section on 03/26/2015