Second top official in Ukrainian president's Cabinet expected to resign

Ukrainian second top official from President Viktor Yushchenko's Cabinet was expected to resign Thursday, local media reported.

The Unian news agency cited Mykola Tomenko, who served as vice prime minister for humanitarian affairs, as saying that he would announce he was stepping down to protest alleged corruption surrounding Yushchenko.

Yushchenko's chief-of-staff, Aleksandr Zinchenko, resigned Saturday and also leveled charges of corruption against high-level officials, including Petro Poroshenko, the head of the Defense and Security Council.

Zinchenko's resignation sent Yushchenko seven-month-old government into turmoil; the president has spent the past three days huddled in marathon meetings with staff.

Yushchenko rose to power on the back of last year's massive "Orange Revolution" protests, which both Zinchenko and Tomenko played key roles in organizing. The coalition of opposition figures promised it would bring an end to the corruption-tainted rule of former President Leonid Kuchma, reports the AP.