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Opinion
April 26, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 19
largest margin ever, versus the previous high
of 42% that was won by Poroshenko in 2014. It also makes Zelenskiy the only Jewish president (albeit non-practising) in the world other than the president of Israel.
Another of Zelenskiy’s victories is he can claim
to have reunited the country and ended the divi- sive politics of previous Ukrainian elections that Poroshenko relied on in his “Army, Faith and Lan- guage” campaign. The only region Poroshenko won was Lviv in the far west, a long-term hotbed of Ukrainian nationalism that is Poroshenko’s base.
Zelenskiy has been criticised by Ukrainian na- tionalists for his mediocre command of Ukrainian as he hails from a Russian-speaking district in the west. But the fact that he broke into Russian on occasion during the April 19 debate with Po- roshenko ended up as a boon, as it emphasised to the other Ukrainians in the west, for whom Russian is their first language, that Zelenskiy is a president for all Ukrainians, irrespective of which language they speak at home.
Ukrainians have shown they are more interested in unifying the country than deriding some citizens simply because they speak the “aggressor’s” language. The irony of Russia’s attack on Ukraine is that it has created a strong sense of national identity that was weak before 2014. Even those
in the east of the country that were sympathetic towards Moscow in 2013 before the military operations began have been convinced that while they want better relations with Moscow they also see themselves as Ukrainians first and foremost.
Now the elections are over the first two big issues on Zelenskiy’s agenda are bringing peace and ending the endemic corruption.
War
Asked what he would do first, Zelenskiy told journalists that his first priority is to “reboot the peace talks” and secure the release of all prisoners of war.
That means talking to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but notably Putin did not call Zelenskiy to congratulate him. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was “too early” to comment and that Putin would wait until there were “concrete actions” by the new president before engaging with him.
“We respect the Ukrainian elections, more so that the verdict was very clear,” he said. “But
the legitimacy of these elections is still under question given that 3.5mn people were unable to vote,” Peskov said in a dig at Kyiv, referring to the three million plus Ukrainians living in Russia who were barred from the vote for “security reasons”. Had the Russia-based Ukrainians been included in the ballot Poroshenko almost certainly would not have made it to the second round – although Zelenskiy almost certainly would have still won.
French President Emmanuel Macron did call and was the first to congratulate Zelenskiy on election night.
Before Zelenskiy can reboot the peace process he needs to meet with his European partners and the Normandy format probably needs to be revised. France has already emerged as a key partner for the new Ukraine. Zelenskiy travelled to Paris just days before the elections to meet with Macron. Following his call with Macron, Zelenskiy tweeted back at France with a text in French.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel sent a telegram and didn't talk to Zelenskiy until April 22. Poroshenko was invited to Berlin shortly before the elections. Zelenskiy was not.
Former Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov called for a fresh beginning with a commentary published in the local media that called for dialogue and an end to the conflict with Ukraine.
Although Ivanov was careful to avoid saying any- thing about the nature or substance of the dispute, he reiterated that the only solution was through the implementation of the Minsk II accord and called for renewed talks.