REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, KIEV -- Ukraine's parliament on Wednesday confirmed pro-Western Arseniy Yatsenyuk will keep his post as prime minister to lead a new coalition government.

In a widely expected move, Yatsenyuk was confirmed to stay on as premier with the backing of 341 deputies out of 390 in the Verkhovna Rada parliament at their first sitting since pro-European parties won an overwhelming majority at polls in October.

Yatsenyuk -- who has held the position since the toppling of pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych in February -- admitted the new government faced a mammoth task to try to drag his ex-Soviet nation back from the brink of collapse.

"On our shoulders rests the weight of historical responsibility -- to preserve the state and win our independence," Yatsenyuk told lawmakers ahead of the vote.

"The country is at war and the people are in trouble."

Government forces are currently battling Kremlin-backed rebels in a brutal conflict in the east that has claimed more than er 4,300 lives since April and splintered the country.

Yatsenyuk -- a bespectacled economic liberal -- will be at the head of a five-party coalition dominated by his People's Front party and President Petro Poroshenko's bloc, with the hopes of the nation resting on how well the two men can work together.

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