Petro Poroshenko, who is leading the presidential race, has promised residents of Ukraine's eastern regions to provide conditions for holding honest and transparent local elections.
“We are firmly confident that there should be peace and order in this
country. If someone wants to come to power, to local power, in the
Donbas area, they are welcome. I am not afraid of any referendums.
Moreover, as soon as armed men are removed, I am ready to go to any
referendum. But instead of a referendum, perhaps we will announce
elections, and perhaps you, the Donbas people, will elect a government
for yourselves that will at last be representative of you,” he told a
press conference in Kyiv on May 26.
