Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko announced on Feb. 9 that he will run for president in the upcoming March elections as he seeks a second term in office.
Poroshenko held an hour-long monologue at an event called “Open Dialogue” in the Soviet Sports Palace event hall in central Kyiv before a crowd of reportedly 10,000 supporters who came to Kyiv from across Ukraine. During his speech, Poroshenko announced his presidential bid and shared his political program.
From time-to-time speaking about himself in third person, Poroshenko said that he considers himself the right president for Ukraine who can prepare the country for joining the European Union and NATO and “complete building a strong, successful state capable of ensuring order, well-being and security for every Ukrainian.”
“My strategic goals for the second term can be summed up in several points: fighting poverty and preparing the country for the entry into the EU and NATO, ensuring peace on conditions that are beneficial for Ukraine and restoring the country’s territorial integrity,” Poroshenko said.
Poroshenko has been Ukraine’s president since 2014. He outlined several of the country’s accomplishments that took place during his presidency: Ukraine’s visa-free regime with the EU; the independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from Moscow; the launch of a decentralization process across the country; the withstanding against Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine. The crowd regularly interrupted Poroshenko with applause as he spoke about these achievements.
“Army. Language. Faith,” he chanted his political motto in Ukrainian and the hall burst into applause again.
Throughout his speech, Poroshenko criticized his political opponents — currently most popular presidential candidates, showman Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Yulia Tymoshenko, the leader of Batkivshchyna party, which currently holds just 21 seats in parliament.
According to a survey taken on Jan. 16–24 and released by Ukraine’s Rating Group on Jan. 31, Zelenskiy is leading in the major presidential election opinion poll with 19 percent. Tymoshenko runs second at 18.2 percent, while Poroshenko is third with 15.1 percent.
Poroshenko said he would not let “these populists multiply by zero everything that people have achieved through suffering.”
According to him, Tymoshenko’s promise to reduce the price of gas in Ukraine and Zelenskiy’s promise to reach an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop the war in eastern Ukraine are made to “divert the attention of Ukrainians” from important matters.
“Ukrainians don’t need a president and Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces who will kneel before Putin… who would flirt and giggle with Putin… whose first signed document would be an act of surrender to Moscow. We would not allow that,” Poroshenko said in a loud voice, reading from two TV prompters. The crowd stood up and cheered.
So “I made a decision to run for president for the second time,” he said.
Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko talks to a crowd of 10,000 supporters in the soviet Sports Palace event hall on Feb. 9 in Kyiv as he announces his presidential bid and shares his political program. (Oleg Petrasiuk)
