“I had information from well-placed sources that the president signed his decree dismissing Oliynyk on Friday. Everyone had a feeling his resignation was coming,” Ivan Denkovych, a BYuT lawmaker and head of Lviv oblast Batkivshchyna branch said in a statement to ZIK Feb. 19.

The main reasons why Petro Olijnyk resigned were the condition of his health and falling NUNS approval ratings in the Lviv oblast.

A new governor is unlikely to be a BYuT member, Denkovych forecasts. “One can notice a trend in all Ukraine whereby BYuT members are not appointed to head rayon and oblast administrations. This is part of Viktor Baloha’s strategies,” Denkovych concluded.