by Our Foreign Desk

UKRAINE’S Fatherland party left the coalition government yesterday, deepening the crisis over Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s leadership.

Fatherland leader and ex-PM Yulia Tymoshenko led the walkout a day after Mr Yatsenyuk survived a no-confidence vote in parliament by 247 to 194.

Ms Tymoshenko’s rightwing party was the smallest of four in the coalition and she accused the others of collusion in a bid to protect their seats fter Mr Yatsenyuk raised fears of regime collapse.

“We consider it inadmissible to be part of that pack, which has no chance because it doesn’t want to conduct reforms, protect Ukraine and renew our life,” she said.

Tuesday’s no-confidence vote was led by the president’s eponymous party Petro Poroshenko Bloc “Solidarity,” which with 134 seats is the largest in the 450-seat parliament and the rapidly-fracturing coalition.

Mr Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front has 82 seats, while ally Self Help has 26 and Fatherland just 19.

The government that rode to power on the backs far-right rioting in 2014 is now struggling to deal with an economic meltdown and a revolt by antifascist forces in the eastern Donbass region — Ukraine’s industrial heartland.

Parliament has blocked legislation granting federal autonomy to the regions and an amnesty for militia — key parts of the Minsk II peace accords Kiev thrashed out with Russia, France and Germany in 2015.

Last week, International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde threatened to halt the delivery of another instalment of Ukraine’s $17.5 billion (£12.3bn) aid package, which Kiev is counting on to keep the economy afloat