Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada speaker Andriy Parubiy has said he believes Volodymyr Zelensky’s potential win in the presidential election will have negative implications for Ukraine.
“We will be responding to key challenges to Ukraine’s national security during these days, and our position will determine whether we can continue to efficiently oppose Russian aggression and whether we will let the ‘Russian world’ into our home,” Parubiy said at the 12th Kyiv Security Forum on Friday.
The speaker criticized Zelensky for “proposing that we step back five years.”
“I see the same that I saw five years ago, and I hear the same that I heard from the Party of Regions and Yanukovych – apparently we need to hold a referendum on NATO, and apparently language, culture, and territory should be left aside. There’s nothing new – this all is old and things we’ve already heard before,” he said.
Parubiy described Zelensky as “a modernized version of Yanukovych” being sold to Ukrainian voters.
“This is just some modernized version of Yanukovych that they’re trying to sell to us and which, unfortunately, many are taking at face value. And the consequences might be the same,” Parubiy said.
