Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has given his support to Arseny Yatsenyuk from the People’s Front Party for a new term as prime minister following last weekend’s parliamentary election.

As power-sharing talks continue, there had been speculation that the president would try to bring in a candidate from his so-called Poroshenko Bloc as head of a new pro-Europe, reformist government.

“According to the Constitution it’s the largest faction that nominates the prime minister’s post,” said ‘Petro Poroshenko Bloc’ member Yurii Lutsenko.

“We exercised our right in order to demonstrate that phrase ‘it’s time to unite’ is not only our party’s motto but is a concept of our activity,” he added.

Meanwhile pro-Russian separatists in the self-proclaimed people’s republics of Donetsk and Luhansk are preparing for Sunday’s election.

Western governments say the vote is illegal and will make it harder to end the conflict in Ukraine’s east. Moscow says it will honour the result.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made clear that despite Western sanctions over Moscow’s role in Ukraine he will not leave the region behind.