Poroshenko congratulates Zelensky on election victory
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko congratulated his successor, Vladimir Zelensky, officially recognized as the winner of the April 30 election by the Central Election Commission, and arranged to meet with him, according to a statement published on the President’s website.
“As the acting head of state, I just called Vladimir Zelensky and congratulated him on the official results of the elections which the Central Election Commission announced today. During our conversation, Vladimir Zelensky and I agreed that we should meet soon,” Poroshenko said.
The president hopes that Zelensky will continue in his footsteps and pursue membership in the European Union and NATO.
“We need to immediately demonstrate to all our allies that we have a united Ukrainian position, now that the Kremlin is implementing the next stage of the hybrid war against Ukraine with its distribution of Russian passports in the occupied territories. In this way, Putin will justify a new wave of military aggression under the pretext of allegedly protecting the rights of Russian citizens. Russia deserves to have sanctions substantially tightened against it. I will devote the last weeks of my presidency to this cause. But to continue and find the solution to this problem is now the responsibility of the new President. Therefore, I believe that we should coordinate our efforts,” Poroshenko said.
The president said that any rivalry during the election is in the past.
On April 21, the second round of presidential elections took place in Ukraine. The voter turnout was 61.37% and 73.22% voted for Zelensky, while 24.45% voted for Poroshenko.
The elected president’s inauguration will take place in no more than 30 days.