Early returns yesterday suggested candy tycoon Petro Poroshenko was elected president of Ukraine in the first round of balloting.
He vowed to “put an end to war, chaos, crime and bring peace to the Ukrainian land.”
The 48-year-old billionaire supports strong ties with Europe, but also wants to mend ties with Russia.
He said he would keep the current government and Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
Poroshenko said his first steps as president would be to visit the Donbass industrial region, where pro-Russia separatists have seized government buildings and battled government troops in weeks of fighting.
Poroshenko also said the Kiev government would like to negotiate a new security treaty with Moscow. He said he hoped to meet Russian leaders next month and said restoring stability in eastern regions would require Moscow’s involvement.
“I hope Russia will support efforts to tackle the situation in the east [of Ukraine],” Poroshenko told a news conference.
He repeated his readiness to speak with separatists who laid down their weapons, but added that he would not meet “terrorists” who threatened the security of the state.
Poroshenko also said he would use all legal means to secure the return to Ukraine of the Crimea region, annexed by Russia in March.
He struck a conciliatory tone, saying he had no “rivals or political opponents in the race” and all other main candidates had congratulated him on his win.
“More than ever, Ukraine now needs to be united,” he said.
The rebels had vowed to block the voting in the east, and less than 20 percent of the polling stations were open there after gunmen intimidated local residents by smashing ballot boxes, shutting down polling centers and issuing threats.
Yesterday, some pro-Russians blocked off the road to the airport in Donetsk, apparently causing delays to many flights.
Nationwide, about 60 percent of 35.5 million eligible voters turned out on Sunday.
With votes from 60 percent of precincts counted early yesterday, Poroshenko was leading with about 54 percent in the field of 21 candidates. Former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko was running a distant second with 13 percent.
Ukrainian Central Election Commission chairman Mykhaylo Okhendovsky said in a televised conference that the official results would be announced by Thursday next week.
Both results were in line with the exit polls, which showed Poroshenko with nearly 56 percent and Tymoshenko with 13 percent. If that margin holds, Poroshenko would avoid a runoff election next month with the second-place finisher.
Speaking after the polls closed, Poroshenko also promised a dialogue with residents of eastern Ukraine and to guarantee their rights, including the right to speak Russian.
He also said he was ready to extend amnesty to those who have not taken up weapons.
“For those who are killing the people, they are terrorists, and no country in the world has any negotiations with terrorists,” Poroshenko said, speaking in English.
Meanwhile, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow is ready for a direct dialogue with Ukraine’s new president, without Western mediation.
Lavrov said that Russia noted Poroshenko’s statements about the importance of normalizing ties with Moscow and the need to establish a dialogue with eastern regions.
Additional reporting by AP and Reuters
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not