Ukraine's Premier Quits Amid Splits in Post-Revolution Alliance

Mr. Yatsenyuk, an economist backed by Ukraine's Western allies, including the United States, came to power two years ago behind the wave of popular anger that culminated with the Maidan street protests, which led to the downfall of President Viktor F. Yanukovych. Mr. Yatsenyuk and Petro O. Poroshenko, who became president, emerged as the nation's most prominent political figures.

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Mr. Yatsenyuk confronted tremendous challenges as prime minister, not least because of the Russian annexation of Crimea and military intervention in the east during his tenure. Ukraine's morass of financial problems required a $40 billion international bailout package.

In tackling them, he faced deep suspicions from the public, and from political opponents and allies alike, that he had fallen back on traditions of negotiating back-room deals with Ukraine's post-Soviet business elite, the oligarchs.

"He couldn't abandon the former practice of consulting the oligarchs before making decisions," Yuri V. Lutsenko, the head of the president's faction in Parliament, said in a telephone interview on Sunday.

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By this year, the West's support had begun to wane. Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, which props up Ukraine financially, said progress had been so slow in fighting corruption that "it's hard to see how the I.M.F.-supported program can continue."