After an unnecessarily protracted government crisis Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk has finally announced he will resign.

This opens the way for Poroshenko’s close ally and political associate Volodymyr Groysman to form a government.

There is wide speculation about what trade-off Yatsenyuk was able to secure for agreeing to go.

The political reality is however that his support in Ukraine collapsed months ago. The one thing that has kept him in office has been the backing of the US.

It seems that Poroshenko’s recent visit to the US - where he met with Obama and Biden - was principally to secure US approval for Yatsenyuk’s removal.

To what extent Yatsenyuk will continue to remain an important figure in Ukrainian politics is debatable. He was never popular to start with and over the course of his time as Prime Minister such popularity as he had has collapsed.

It is possible that in time Yatsenyuk will come to see this for himself, in which case a comfortable post in some university or think-tank in the US may be what lies in store.