KIEV, May 20 — Volodymyr Zelensky, a 41-year-old comedian who took office as Ukraine’s president today, announced the dissolution of parliament in his inaugural speech in order to hold early elections.

“I dissolve the Verkhovna Rada of the eighth convocation,” the newly sworn-in president said during the ceremony in parliament in Kiev.

The next parliamentary polls had been scheduled for October.

Zelensky does not command majority support in the current parliament and has wrangled with hostile lawmakers whom he accused of deliberately delaying his inauguration and called “petty crooks.”

Ahead of his inauguration, Zelensky had already threatened to launch the highly complex process of dissolving parliament and calling new elections in order to benefit from his current popularity.

His team said in a statement on Friday that the country needs “a parliament that functions.” — AFP </s> DONBASS – President of Ukraine Zelensky will end the war in the Donbass by arranging the “night of long knives” for the Nazis and the radicals. So says Ukrainian ex-deputy Oleg Tsarev, reports “TsarGrad” , referring to the comment of the policy of the FAN .

According to him, Zelensky is 90% likely to end the war in the Donbass by fulfilling the Minsk agreements in the form in which they were signed. At the same time, he will try to negotiate with the LDNR directly, removing his rival Medvedchuk from them.

Tsarev notes that Zelensky is not going to share his power with anyone, including with the Ukrainian Nazis. The former parliamentarian does not exclude that in the near future the radicals are waiting for the “night of long knives.”

He assumes that as a step towards Russia to the Crimea, the water supply from Ukraine, which was suspended in 2014, can be restored. As for the recognition of the Crimea as a territory of Russia, this is a more complicated question.

“Not a single Ukrainian politician can not afford to give up the Crimea. At least, as long as there is no “transfer of power” in Kiev, – explained Tsarev.

Today, parliamentary deputy Rabinovich said that the party of war is leading in parliament, which will lead Ukraine to a catastrophe .

Earlier, a Ukrainian political analyst said that, according to the preliminary results of the elections to the Verkhovna Rada, the forces leading up to the country’s entry into NATO and the EU and for hundreds of years of war with Russia are leading in the Ukrainian parliament .

Note that today the leader of the party “Servant of the People” Razumkov said that the new composition of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine may begin work in late August .

Also today, he said that the party “Servant of the People” does not see the point in creating a coalition in the Rada .

In addition, it was reported that the CEC of Ukraine processed half of the electronic protocols .

The Central Election Commission has not recorded serious violations in the elections to the Verkhovna Rada.

Yesterday after the closure of polling stations in Ukraine, official exit poll data were published. The first place in the elections to the Verkhovna Rada was predictably occupied by the party of the current president of Zelensky, “The Servant of the People”. The second is behind the Boyko-Medvedchuk Opposition Platform.

Earlier, the Kiev police reported massive violations of electoral legislation on the eve of elections. </s> The Batkivschyna All-Ukrainian Association parliamentary faction has welcomed disbandment of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine by President Volodymyr Zelenskyi.

Deputy Chairperson of the Batkivschyna parliamentary faction, Serhii Sobolev, said this on the sidelines of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, during his inauguration speech, President Volodymyr Zelenskyi informed he was disbanding the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of VIII convocation. </s> President Volodymyr Zelenskyi has agreed with chairpersons of the Verkhovna Rada factions on scheduling the snap parliamentary election for July 21.

Chairperson of the Radical Party faction at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Oleh Liashko, has said this to the press, the Ukrainian News Agency reports.

The leader of the Radical Party noted that the Ukrainian Parliament would hold an extraordinary meeting to amend the election legislation.

First deputy chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada, Iryna Heraschenko, has warned against a too rapid amendment of the election legislation and told about absence of constitutional reasons for disbandment of the Verkhovna Rada.

She said that chairperson of the Central Election Commission, Tetiana Slipachuk, was also present at the consultations between President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and heads of the parliamentary factions.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on Monday, Zelenskyi said he would disband the Verkhovna Rada. </s> Poland expects Polish-Ukrainian affairs be an important part of the new Ukrainian government’s agenda, said a Polish presidential aide after early results of Ukraine’s Sunday parliamentary election showed the Ukrainian president’s party is on course to win big.

President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People party will likely to form a one-party parliamentary majority, for the first time in Ukraine’s history.

“One party rule is not only an opportunity for full implementation of the political programme, but also a responsibility,” the head of Polish President Andrzej Duda’s office, Krzysztof Szczerski said on Monday, adding that, after the elections to the Ukrainian parliament on Sunday, Verkhovna Rada, the political milieu of Zelensky, will take full responsibility for the future fate of Ukraine.

“We will therefore wait for the formation of a new cabinet and information on its political priorities,” the Polish president’s aide said.

“We expect, as President Andrzej Duda said after the first meeting with President Zelensky, that the matters which are important in Polish-Ukrainian relations, will be an important part of the political agenda of the new government, and politically coherent with the President of Ukraine,” Szczerski said. “We are ready to cooperate, but we also expect good talks with the new Ukrainian authorities on common Polish-Ukrainian topics,” he added.

Krzysztof Szczerski also said that President Zelensky is expected to visit Warsaw to attend events marking the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, on September 1.

“There is such a will, so I also do not rule out that the Ukrainian president’s first official visit to Poland will take place on September 2, the Polish official said, adding that it would be a good opportunity to talk about the new Ukrainian government’s policy.

Ukraine’s Central Election Commission (CEC) said the ruling party had secured 42.3 percent of the votes, after almost half had been counted on Monday. The Russian-friendly party, Opposition Platform for Life, was in a distant second place with 12.7 pct, followed by former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko’s party, European Solidarity, which secured 8.7 pct. The party of former Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko, garnered a little above 8 pct support, while Voice, fronted by rock star Sviatoslav Vakarchuk, received 6.3 pct.

The remaining parties did not pass the 5 pct threshold to enter parliament. (PAP) </s> President Volodymyr Zelenskyi is calling on the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to immediately adopt the Election Code of Ukraine, the law on termination of parliamentary immunity and reinstate criminal responsibility for unlawful enrichment.

He said this in his inauguration speech at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

He also called on the MPs to dismiss Chairperson of the Security Service of Ukraine, Vasyl Hrytsak; Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Yurii Lutsenko; and Minister of Defense, Stepan Poltorak.

Zelenskyi said the Verkhovna Rada had two months to do that.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on Monday, May 20, Zelenskyi became the sixth President of Ukraine. </s> KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — The Latest on Ukraine's politics (all times local):

Ukraine's new president has signed a decree dissolving the parliament and calling a snap election in two months.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced his intention to disband the legislature minutes after being sworn in Monday. His decree dissolving the Verkhovna Rada and setting early elections for July 21 was posted on the presidential website Tuesday.

The current parliament is dominated by allies of former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, and Zelenskiy hopes to ride the wave of his electoral success to get his supporters into parliament.

An adviser to the new Ukrainian president says that he will sign a decree formally dissolving the parliament and calling snap elections within days.

Andriy Bohdan, adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in televised remarks Tuesday that the president would send the decree in the coming days. He said he hopes that parliament would vote for changes to the electoral law before it is disbanded.

Moments after he was sworn into office, Zelenskiy dropped a bombshell when he said he is dissolving the parliament, dominated by allies of the former Ukrainian president. Zelenskiy sat down with political leaders Tuesday morning to discuss the dissolution.

Bohdan said the meeting with the lawmakers showed that they would be willing to adopt the electoral changes Zelenskiy has proposed. </s> Sitting President Poroshenko has just admitted defeat, but promised that he would not leave politics: his party is preparing for parliamentary elections. And the future president Zelensky is already preparing for the inauguration.

scored 73.7%, Petro Poroshenko – 26.3%. The All-Ukrainian exit poll was conducted by the 112 Ukraine TV channels and NewsOne, the SORA Institute for Social Research and Consultations (Austria), the Social Monitoring Center, the Ukrainian Institute for Social Research. A. Yaremenko.

By 20:00, results of exit polls in Ukraine became known. According to the “Ukrainian exit poll”,

Unlike President Poroshenko, the musician and leader of the Okean Elzy group Svyatoslav Vakarchuk actually came to the polling station in embroidery and stressed that in this election he votes for Ukraine.

Vakarchuk, who had previously announced his intention to return to politics, officially refused to take part in the presidential election. According to him, “in jeans, he can do more for the country than wearing a tie.” Subsequently, he said that he would focus on the October elections to the Verkhovna Rada.

Poroshenko’s block will go to be elected to parliament

Concentrating on parliamentary elections the “Blok of Petro Poroshenko” will push ahead. The head of the BPP faction in the Verkhovna Rada Arthur Gerasimov said that the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko admitted his defeat. After the first round, in which Vladimir Zelensky won, more and more often the public discussed the possibility of announcing early parliamentary elections if he succeeds in becoming the sixth president of Ukraine.

“The main thing is not to let the hands loose. And the parliament, it is, let them dissolve. It’s not a problem. Every politician should be ready for elections. We’re in power. If we lose today, we’ll be in opposition. This is a normal life. I don’t see big problems here, ”said Verkhovna Rada deputy from the BPP faction, Alexey Goncharenko . </s> UKRAINE - Comedian Volodymyr Zelensky announced a snap parliamentary election during his swearing-in as Ukraine’s new president. The election was expected to take place in October 2019. But at the ceremony in Kiev Mr Zelensky said “I am dissolving the Verkhovna Rada (parliament)”. He said ending the conflict with Russian-backed rebels in the east would be his top priority.

A political novice, he campaigned strongly against official corruption.

“People must come to power who will serve the public,” he said on Monday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would not congratulate Mr Zelensky on his inauguration, but would wait for “the first successes in settling the internal conflict in south-eastern Ukraine, and in normalising Russian-Ukrainian relations”. Meanwhile, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called on Ukraine’s new leader to implement the Minsk peace accord agreed in 2015, and also suggested an “all for all” prisoner swap between both sides.

Mr Zelensky a former television star, acted the part of Ukrainian president in a popular comedy series. He scored a landslide victory in last month’s presidential election. “We must become Icelanders in football, Israelis in defending our native land, Japanese in technology,” he said at the swearing-in.

He said Ukrainians must also “become Swiss in our ability to live happily with each other, despite any differences”.

“Our first task is to achieve a ceasefire in Donbas,” he said, referring to the eastern region controlled by Russian-backed rebels. In the election Mr Zelensky ousted incumbent Petro Poroshenko, who had been in power since 2014.

Mr Zelensky has given few details of his plans since winning by a landslide on 21 April. He has left it to a team of advisers to try and reassure people that he knows what he’s doing. Mr Zelensky made his inaugural address in Ukrainian but at one point, referring to the conflict in the east, he switched to Russian, saying: “I’m convinced that for this dialogue to start, we must see the return of all Ukrainian prisoners” - apparently a message to the Russian government.

Fighting in the east has claimed about 13,000 lives since Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014.

Zelensky starred in the long-running satirical drama Servant of the People in which his character accidentally becomes Ukraine’s president.

He plays a teacher who is elected after his expletive-laden rant about corruption goes viral on social media.

He ran under a political party with the same name as his show.

With no previous political experience, Mr Zelensky’s campaign focused on his difference from the other candidates rather than on any concrete policy ideas.

Despite this, he stormed to victory and won more than 70% of the vote.
Ukrainian citizens vote for the new members of the Verkhovna Rada, following its dissolution by President Volodymyr Zelensky in May.