Poroshenko pits himself against Putin in election billboards in Kyiv
Ukraine’s incumbent President Petro Poroshenko is pitting himself against Russian President Vladimir Putin in the second round of presidential elections, commented Ihor Feshchenko, an analyst from the Civil movement “Chesno”, on Facebook.
Feshchenko also published a photograph of a billboard with Poroshenko and Putin and the text “21 April – the decisive choice”.
“Well, the wave of second round advertisements continues to grow. Fortunately this will only last one and a half weeks,” Feshchenko commented. He noted that the billboard image was taken from an album of “political agitation” created a year ago.
In an interview with ICTV on Monday evening, Poroshenko apologized for his election slogan: “If not Poroshenko, then Putin”.
“I am convinced that the lion’s share of threats come from Russia. I repeat once more, I have not accused Volodymyr Zelensky of being Putin’s agent. This is definitely not the case. And if some people have understood it to mean that, I apologize,” the president said.
During his election campaign, Poroshenko repeatedly said that Ukraine needs to choose a leader who can stand up to Russian aggression and to Putin.
The second and final round of Ukraine’s presidential elections will take place on 21 April. The two candidates, Poroshenko and Zelensky, are scheduled to debate each other at 8 p.m. Kyiv time on 19 April.