MOSCOW, April 11. /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.