Siemens, Universal Robots, and Zivid Unveil Next-Genera ...
Top 1
Ukrainians are voting in an early parliamentary election in which the new party of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is set to take the largest share of votes.
Polls ahead of Sunday's balloting showed Zelenskiy's Servant of the People party getting support from a little more than half of those who intended to vote. But only 225 of the 424 seats to be filled in the Verkhovna Rada parliament are being chosen by party list; the rest are single-mandate seats, whose distribution could differ from nationwide sentiment.
Zelenskiy, who took office in May, called the election three months ahead of its scheduled date because the parliament was dominated by his opponents. He is seeking a majority that would support his promised fight against Ukraine's endemic corruption and for other reforms.
His "Servant of the People" party — named after the television comedy in which he played a teacher who unexpectedly becomes president — is supported by 52% of the Ukrainians who intend to vote, according to a survey by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology.
A party led by one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest associates, tycoon Viktor Medvedchuk, is polling in second place with about 10%, followed by the European Solidarity party of former President Petro Poroshenko, whom Zelenskiy defeated in a landslide in the country's spring presidential election.
Zelenskiy's party intends to continue a pro-Western course toward joining the European Union and NATO, combining this with a package of economic reforms.
"The position of the Ukrainian people is movement in the direction of Europe and it will be wrong to reconsider," party leader Dmytro Razumkov told The Associated Press.
The party says it will focus on resuscitating anti-corruption reforms that stalled under Poroshenko. Razumkov says this could be a watershed for Ukraine, bringing in a new political culture of lawmakers interested in reforms rather than using political power for money.
"There are new people who today have completely different basic values than the representatives of the old political elites," Razumkov said.
In contrast, Medvedchuk says Ukraine's proper course is to improve its relations with Russia, which plummeted after Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and its support for Russia-backed separatists fighting government troops in a war that has killed more than 13,000 people.
"If we do not restore economic pragmatic relations with Russia ... then we have no chance to overcome the economic crisis, which continues and is being aggravated," Medvedchuk told the AP.
He proposes that Ukraine grant autonomy to rebel areas in the east and offer amnesty to the separatists. He said Ukraine could get a 25% discount on natural gas imports from Russia if it takes steps that satisfy the Kremlin.
Since Putin is the godfather of Medvedchuk's daughter, his statements likely reflect Kremlin thinking. Medvedchuk and the Russian leader met Thursday in St. Petersburg.
"We will work with any political force, including your political force, to restore relations between Russia and Ukraine," Putin said.
Razumkov said Zelenskiy's party is ready to negotiate with Russia on mechanisms for conflict resolution and seeks peace in the east "but not at any cost."
"What Medvedchuk says is not a strategy for returning territories, not a strategy for ending the war," he said.
Analyst Volodymyr Fesenko of Ukraine's Penta think tank says the ideas proposed by Medvedchuk are widely perceived as "the restoration of the Russian protectorate over Ukraine."