Poroshenko sacks Dinpropetrovsk governor

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Dinpropetrovsk governor Igor Kolomoisky resignation in Ukraine - © Mikhail Palinchak / Pool, EPA
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Wednesday fired an influential governor in a key region of eastern Ukraine after a tense stand-off that raised fears of further escalation in the crisis-hit country.
Poroshenko relieved Ihor Kolomoisky of his duties as governor of the eastern Dinpropetrovsk region - a centre of heavy industry - after Kolomoisky requested this, the presidency said, repors dpa.
The move, announced early on Wednesday, follows a highly public battle between Kolomoisky - a billionaire businessman turned politician - and the Ukrainian parliament over control of state companies.
Last week, Kolomoisky sent heavily armed men to block access to the Kiev offices of Ukrnafta and Ukrtransnafta - two oil companies nominally owned by the state but controlled by the oligarch.
The move came after parliament passed a law that would return control of the energy companies to the state by lowering the quorum at shareholders' meetings, a move that Kolomoisky condemned as a "raid."
Calls for Kolomoisky's resignation grew louder after a video released online showed him verbally attacking a journalist outside one of the companies and after armed guards beat up an MP for Poroshenko's party wanting to enter the offices.
The conflict between Poroshenko and Kolomoisky raised fears that Ukrainian politics would descend into "oligarch wars" that could further destabilize the crisis-hit country.
Kolomoisky was appointed governor of Dnipropetrovsk, a key industrial region in Ukraine's Russian-speaking east in March 2014, days after the ouster of former President Viktor Yanukovych.
He was widely credited for setting up volunteer formations to fight pro-Russian separatists in the neighboring Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Russia accused him of running a private army not under the control of the government in Kiev. In July, a Moscow court issued an arrest warrant against Kolomoisky after investigators accused him of organizing the murder of civilians in eastern Ukraine.
In an effort to present a united front, Poroshenko called Kolomoisky a patriot, adding that "Dnipropetrovsk must remain a bastion of Ukraine in the east," according to a video released by Radio Liberty.          

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