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AFP
Kiev
Ukraine readied Saturday for a change in leadership as a young comedian appeared set to crush his incumbent rival in presidential polls, delivering a stinging rebuke to the old elite. The 41-year-old TV star Volodymyr Zelensky’s bid to lead Ukraine began as a long shot but all polls show him defeating President Petro Poroshenko in a second-round vote on Sunday.
His victory would open a new chapter in the history of a country that has gone through two popular uprisings in two decades and is mired in a five-year conflict with Moscow-backed insurgents in the east. Despite mounting uncertainty Ukrainians are fed up with corruption, poverty, and the war that has claimed some 13,000 lives over the past five years.
“There is a hope that a simple man will better understand us and dismantle the system that we have in our country,” Yuliya Lykhota, 29, saidin Kiev. “It is very important to raise our people’s spirits.”
Kiev
Ukraine readied Saturday for a change in leadership as a young comedian appeared set to crush his incumbent rival in presidential polls, delivering a stinging rebuke to the old elite. The 41-year-old TV star Volodymyr Zelensky’s bid to lead Ukraine began as a long shot but all polls show him defeating President Petro Poroshenko in a second-round vote on Sunday.
His victory would open a new chapter in the history of a country that has gone through two popular uprisings in two decades and is mired in a five-year conflict with Moscow-backed insurgents in the east. Despite mounting uncertainty Ukrainians are fed up with corruption, poverty, and the war that has claimed some 13,000 lives over the past five years.
“There is a hope that a simple man will better understand us and dismantle the system that we have in our country,” Yuliya Lykhota, 29, saidin Kiev. “It is very important to raise our people’s spirits.”
