You're reading: Yushchenko says he’s quitting presidential post in order to return

Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko has said that he is quitting his current post in order to return.

"I’m quitting [as president] in order to come back again," he said during ceremonies marking Ukrainian Unity Day in Kyiv on Jan. 22.

Yushchenko said that politicians who don’t think too much about their posts and their ambitions always return.

He said that he would stick to fundamental values as freedom and democracy, as well as the country’s European future. Yushchenko also expressed confidence that these values would win.

He said that he had fulfilled his democratic duties at the presidential post, however, "national commitments don’t give me any moral right to leave the country’s political life."

Yuschenko said that he respected the results of the first round of the presidential election in Ukraine.