Kiev - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree
on Tuesday to immediately disband the national parliament and hold
snap elections for the legislature on July 21.
"The main argument for dissolving the Verkhovna Rada is an extremely
low trust of Ukrainian citizens in this institution," Zelensky said
at a meeting with the legislature's leadership.
Zelensky, sworn in as president this week, called for the Verkhovna
Rada to be disbanded in his inauguration speech. Many members of the
legislature have connections with the former president.
Zelensky claimed on Tuesday that he has the authority to disband the
legislature because "since 2016 there has been no coalition." The
measure has not encountered significant resistance.
The prime minister and the foreign minister, both allies of the
former president, have announced they are resigning in a gesture of
respect to Zelensky.
The 41-year-old was previously a television actor who came to fame
playing a fictional president on a popular television show, "Servant
of the People."
Having never before held political office, Zelensky campaigned as an
alternative to an establishment that has long struggled with
entrenched corruption.
He won the run-off election against former president Petro Poroshenko
last month with about three-quarters of the votes.
Poroshenko, swept to power by a pro-Western revolution five years
ago, led Ukraine through its toughest post-Soviet period, marked by a
pro-Russian separatist rebellion in the country's east.
Amid the conflict, which has claimed about 13,000 lives, according to
UN estimates, Poroshenko appeared slow in enacting reforms promised
in his rise to power.