Comedic actor Volodymyr Zelenskiy is about to become Ukraine’s sixth president.
The official results of the April 21 election are not yet in. But several exit polls predict an overwhelming victory for Zelenskiy.
The political newcomer will receive 73 percent of the vote, while incumbent President Petro Poroshenko will only take around 23 percent, according to preliminary results of the National Exit Poll. That margin of victory — 48 percent — will be the largest in the history of Ukrainian presidential elections.
A minute before the exit poll results were announced at 8 p.m. Zelenskiy took to the stage with his wife and team at his headquarters in Kyiv. His first speech as the presumed winner of the election was short. He read it from a piece of paper.
“Thank you to my parents for their support and for making it through (the campaign),” Zelenskiy said. “Thank you to my wife for her strength. If she knew the things that were said and written about me in the past weeks, she would never have married me.”
He proceeded to thank his team, his campaign workers, colleagues from his TV production company Kvartal 95, and “Mrs. Oksana and Mrs. Lyuba,” who appear to be the cleaning ladies working at the campaign headquarters. He also thanked law enforcement officers “for their honest service” and Ukrainian soldiers “for guarding Ukraine.”
“Thank you to all Ukrainians who supported me. Thank you to all Ukrainians who made a different choice,” he said. “I promise that I will never fail you.”
He then directed a message to the people of neighboring countries.
“While I’m not yet president, I can say this as a Ukrainian citizen. To all post-Soviet countries: look at us. Everything is possible,” he said.
Zelenskiy initially took no questions from the press and left to an adjacent room with his team. He then recorded a short video thanking his supporters online.
Later Zelenskiy gave a short briefing, answering several questions from the press. Some excerpts from his briefing:
On Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, a Poroshenko ally: “Lutsenko is the old team. We will appoint new people! And this is not only about Lutsenko.”
On the war in Donbas: “We will act within the Normandy Format and will continue the Minsk (peace) process. We will be reloading it: I believe we’ll have staff turnovers…we will do everything possible for the sake of ending open hostilities. Bringing our boys back home alive is paramount for us. Apart from that, our number one task is to get all of our prisoners of war back.”
On the Ukrainian language: “I must protect the Ukrainian language as guarantor (of the constitution), and I will do it.”
On Poroshenko: “Poroshenko has offered me his assistance. If I ever need it, I’ll call him… Do you want me to appoint him to a post? I will definitely ask society, and if it wants Petro Poroshenko on some post, it can happen. But let’s at least try to do something with new people.”
