Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a star comedian and president-elect of Ukraine, will be sworn in as the country’s 6th president on May 20.
Here’s everything we know about how it will happen.
When does it start
The inauguration ceremony will start at 10 a.m. local time on May 20.
It will take place almost exactly one month after Zelenskiy secured an overwhelming victory over President Petro Poroshenko in the April 21 runoff election, getting 73 percent of the vote.
The date was set after weeks of acute tension between the Verkhovna Rada and the Zelenskiy campaign.
Zelenskiy repeatedly accused the Rada of deliberately delaying his inauguration out of fear that the new president might execute his right to dissolve the parliament and order a snap election. An actual parliamentary election is scheduled for October, but many believe that Zelenskiy’s party Servant of the People would do better in a snap election this summer, riding the wave of its leader’s success.
Zelenskiy demanded that the inauguration ceremony be held on Sunday, May 19, but this claim was rejected under the ruse of the Day of Remembrance of Victims of Political Repressions commemorated on this day. The parliament eventually on May 16 voted to set the inauguration on May 20.
Where will it take place
Zelenskiy spoke of making a show out of the inauguration and maybe even do it at a sports arena where the presidential debate memorably took place before the election. Eventually, he is going to have to conduct the inauguration in a traditional way: in parliament.
A political newcomer, Zelenskiy will be the first president for whom the inauguration will presumably be his first-ever visit to the Verkhovna Rada hall.
Zelenskiy said on May 17 that he wished to swear his oath not in front of parliamentarians, but the people of Ukraine, but he had to obey the law and do the ceremony in the Verkhovna Rada. So he invited everyone to come to the Mariinskiy Park just next to the parliament, where big screens would be broadcasting his oath of office. He intended to come to the Rada from the park, he said.
The roads will be closed off in the whole “governmental quarter,” an area in central Kyiv that hosts many governmental offices, including the parliament and the presidential administration.
Zelenskiy apologized for the closing of the roads, saying that he wanted the inauguration to be held on a day off to not mess up the traffic in Kyiv, but the parliament instead scheduled it for Monday.
“The parliament created some difficulties for us, and we, I’m sure, will create some difficulties for them,” the president-elect said with a menacing grin in an online video posted a couple of days before the inauguration.
How to follow it
It will be broadcast live by the UA:Pershiy national public TV channel, as well as by all principal Ukrainian TV networks.
For English speakers, the Kyiv Post will be doing a live blog during the inauguration and live tweet it.
How it will happen
At the beginning of the ceremony, the Central Electoral Commission head Tetiana Slipachuk is expected to again proclaim the official results of the April 21 elections confirming Zelenskiy’s victory.
Then, Zelenskiy will be sworn in by the head of Ukraine’s Constitutional Court, Justice Nataliya Shaptala, during the special ceremonial meeting of the Verkhovna Rada. For the first time, a woman will be swearing in the president of Ukraine. Shaptala only became the head of the Constitutional Court days before the inauguration, on May 14.
Zelenskiy will stand at the parliament’s rostrum and read out an oath to serve Ukraine, with his right hand on two books laid atop one another: the Сonstitution and the Peresopnytsia Gospel, a 16th-century manuscript. The use of the Gospel is optional, but Zelenskiy said he would follow the tradition and swear on it.
Then, Zelenskiy will sign the oath and hand it over to the chief justice of the Constitutional Court.
Having verified this, the chief justice will proclaim Zelenskiy president and present to him the symbols of presidential power in Ukraine: the presidential flag, the seal, a ceremonial collar, and the presidential bulawa — a blunt mace serving as a symbol of high authority of Ukrainian Cossack leaders, hetmans, in the 16th-17th centuries.
The head of electoral commission will also give Zelenskiy his presidential identity document.
After this, Zelenskiy is expected to proclaim his first address to the nation as a new president.
After the inauguration, Zelenskiy will be meeting with Ukraine’s top military officers and foreign guests for the rest of the day.
Who is coming
According to Kateryna Zelenko, Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson, the ceremony will be joined by nearly 60 representatives of foreign nations. As the official noted on her Facebook page, the visits of presidents of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, and Georgia were expected.
The United States will be represented by Secretary of Energy Rick Perry. Canada will send its National Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan. From France, there will be the country’s Minister of European Affairs Amelie de Montchalin. Poland will be represented by Jacek Czaputowicz, the foreign minister.
The European Union will be represented by Vice-President of the European Commission Maros Sefcovic.
NATO’s delegation will be headed by Assistant Secretary General Alejandro Alvargonzález.
