The Kremlin spokesman
also said that Moscow is not planning to send congratulations to any candidates
on making it to Ukraine’s runoff presidential election.
MOSCOW, April 1.
/TASS/. The Kremlin believes it is premature to comment on the presidential
election in Ukraine, since the runoff will be held, Russian Presidential
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
"The election in
Ukraine is not over, the runoff will be held, so it is too early to make any
official comments yet," he said. "We have to wait."
The Kremlin spokesman
declined to comment on comedian Vladimir Zelensky’s performance in the
election, who leads the race after the first round. "The election is not
over, the runoff was not held yet and the winner was not determined so far, so
we believe it is premature to talk about that," he noted.
Peskov also commented
on remarks by head of the Russian State Duma Committee for CIS Affairs,
Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots Leonid Kalashnikov who
advised the lower house of the Russian parliament to approve a statement on
non-recognition of the results of Ukraine’s presidential election. According to
the Kremlin spokesman, that’s the lawmakers’ stance, while "under the
Constitution, the basics of the country’s foreign policy are determined by the
head of state, that is, the president."
According to
Peskov, Moscow is not planning to send
congratulations to any candidates on making it to Ukraine’s runoff presidential
election, either.
"Until the
election is over, it would be probably wrong to congratulate anyone on reaching
the runoff, that’s why certainly, there is no talk about this because the
winner of the Ukrainian election is unknown now," Peskov said.
"We are
carefully watching the candidates’ statements, especially those concerning our
country and bilateral relations. We are keeping a close eye on the candidates’
statements about their vision on the future fate of Donbass and are drawing
certain conclusions. Surely, we would like to see not a party of war steering
Ukraine, but a party, which is set to really settle the situation in Ukraine’s
southeast step-by-step based on the existing [Minsk] agreements," Peskov
said.
Head of the Servant
of the People party Vladimir Zelensky leads the race having garnerered 30.45%
of the vote now that 70% of ballots have been counted. He is followed by
incumbent President Pyotr Poroshenko (16.19%) and leader of the Batkivshchyna
party Yulia Timoshenko who has secured 13.15% of the vote.
Ukraine’s Central
Election Commission earlier declared that none of the candidates would be able
to win the majority of votes, and the runoff election would be held on April
21.
Source: ITAR-TASS
01-04-2019
