Poroshenko congratulates Zelensky on winning Ukraine's presidential election

Incumbent President Petro Poroshenko said this in his address following the announcement of the official election results by the Central Election Commission (CEC) on Tuesday, according to which Volodymyr Zelensky was elected president of the state, the president’s press service reported.

“As sitting head of state, I have just called Volodymyr Zelensky and congratulated him on the official election results announced by the Central Election Commission… Russia deserves a significant increase in sanctions against it. This will be the main issue of the last weeks of my presidential powers. But it is already a responsibility of the new president to continue and complete the solution to this problem. Therefore, I believe that we should coordinate our efforts. The rivalry in the elections remains in the past," Poroshenko said.

According to him, it is necessary to demonstrate a single Ukrainian position to all partners, while the Kremlin implements another stage of the hybrid war against Ukraine, distributing Russian passports in the occupied territories. “Putin prepares a justification for a new round of military aggression under the pretext of protecting the rights of the citizens of the Russian Federation,“ the incumbent president noted.

Poroshenko stressed that during five years of his presidency he had been consistently implementing Ukraine's strategy of membership in the European Union and NATO. “I hope that the new president will continue this course, which fully corresponds to the national interests of Ukraine,” he said.

He thanked more than 4.5 million voters who voted for him. “But now, we, Ukrainians, together must deprive Putin of any chance to take advantage of the transitional period in Ukraine, of our democratic process of transfer of power. I expect that such a position will be supported by the elected president,“ he noted.

During the phone conversation, Poroshenko and Zelensky agreed to hold a meeting in the near future.

As reported, the Central Election Commission (CEC) announced the final results of Ukraine's presidential election at a meeting on April 30. According to the results of the runoff election, Volodymyr Zelensky won the presidential election, as 73.22% of voters or 13.541,528 Ukrainian citizens voted for him. 24.45% of voters or 4.522,450 Ukrainian citizens cast their votes for incumbent President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko.

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