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Ukraines president Petro Poroshenko: said the main task of Ukraines leaders was to achieve the de-oligarchisation of the country even though he himself is a billionaire owner of a confectionary company. Photograph: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Ukraines leaders have closed ranks and vowed that a bruising conflict with one of the countrys richest oligarchs will not trigger a power struggle between business clans or allow Russian-backed militants to seize more territory in the east.

Allies of billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky whom president Petro Poroshenko removed as governor of the strategically vital Dnipropetrovsk region last week also struck a conciliatory note at a farewell rally in the province on Saturday.

Mr Kolomoisky was replaced after allegedly ordering gunmen to occupy the Kiev base of two energy companies, over which he lost great influence under a new law on the rights of minority shareholders.

The tycoon denied being behind the armed raids, but Mr Poroshenko and government ministers condemned the action as the kind of gangsterism that last years pro-western, anti-corruption revolution in Ukraine sought to end.

As neighbouring Donetsk became the stronghold of pro-Moscow militants in a conflict that has killed more than 6,000 people and displaced 1.5 million, Mr Kolomoisky made his province a bastion of pro-government power, funding a powerful battalion of volunteer fighters to defend it and serve in eastern regions.

Above all, I dont want this to look like a conflict within the authorities. I wont allow that, as president of the country, Mr Poroshenko said.

He said the main task of Ukraines leaders was to achieve the de-oligarchisation of the country even though he himself is a billionaire owner of a confectionary company.

If we are trying to create order in the country, then they are creating chaos . . . I will not stand for that, Mr Poroshenko said, without naming which tycoons he had in mind.

This is not at all about certain names. Government decisions must be implemented . . . We will not allow any further repeat of chaos not in Kiev or in any other city.

Read the original here:
Ukraine leaders oust oligarch as governor of Dnipropetrovsk