All news

Zelensky to Poroshenko: ‘I am not your opponent, I am your sentence’

Around 22,000 people attended the presidential debates held at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev on Friday

KIEV, April 19. /TASS/. Ukrainian presidential candidate Vladimir Zelensky has told incumbent president Pyotr Poroshenko that Zelensky is not his opponent, but his sentence, during the debates at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev.

"I am not your opponent, Pyotr Alexeyevich [Poroshenko], I am your sentence," he said. "You ask me about war. We are currently at war. And you, as commander-in-chief, must answer it: why is the war not over yet?"

In response to Poroshenko’s claim that Zelensky is a partner of Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, he reminded that Poroshenko is an oligarch himself. "You’ve said that I am Kolomoisky’s partner… I will live with this. I want to say that here in Ukraine, traditionally, all TV channels belong to the oligarchs: Kolomoisky, Pinchuk, Firtash, Akhmetov and you, Pyotr Alexeyevich!" Zelensky said.

"In my opinion, an oligarch cannot be president, a president needs to come from the people," Zelensky stressed.

Around 22,000 people attended the presidential debates held at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev on Friday evening.

The runoff of Ukraine’s presidential elections is scheduled for April 21 and will feature head of the Servant of the People party Vladimir Zelensky going up against incumbent President Pyotr Poroshenko. The first round took place on March 31 and saw Zelensky receiving 30.24% of the votes, almost twice as much as Poroshenko, who got 15.95%.