The government of Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko will not "voluntarily" resign, her top aide said on Feb. 11.
Yanukovych, winner of Sunday’s presidential poll by 3.48 percentage points, has twice called on Tymoshenko to quit as premier.
Showing no signs of giving ground, a steely Tymoshenko made her first public appearance since election night, when she accused Yanukovych of electoral fraud.
She chaired a cabinet meeting and attacked him and his Regions Party for retreating on commitments to raise public sector salaries and pensions.
Tymoshenko’s camp is contesting results of Sunday’s election, which tilted the former Soviet republic back toward Russia five years after its pro-Western Orange Revolution co-led by Tymoshenko.
Minutes after the prime minister spoke, her first deputy and close aide Oleksander Turchynov told reporters: "The government does not plan to resign voluntarily."
Standing to open the cabinet meeting, Tymoshenko made no mention of her own position or her electoral defeat. She instead attacked the Regions Party’s policy on social spending, saying: "It was just pre-election PR."
Yanukovych election campaign manager Borys Kolesnikov said on Wednesday that if Tymoshenko did not resign, she would be dismissed and Yanukovych would find a new prime minister.
If Yanukovych cannot form a coalition in parliament, he would have to call a snap parliamentary election.
The political confrontation, after an election endorsed by international monitors, the United States and Russia, threatens to deny the country of 46 million people a swift return to stability.
It could also delay the resumption of International Monetary Fund lending which last year was crucial for the state’s finances but was suspended because of breached Ukrainian promises of fiscal restraint.
