Vladimir Putin is not going to extend greetings to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy on the occasion of his getting into office. According to Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, the representatives of Russia were not invited to the event.
At the moment, the Russian president does not have plans to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
“President Putin will congratulate president Zelenskiy on the first success in the settlement of the domestic conflict in southeastern Ukraine and on the first success in the normalization of Russian-Ukrainian relations,” Kremlin-run news agency TASS quotes Putin’s spokesman.
Peskov refused to specify what he was referring to when speaking about the ‘first success’. According to him, it ‘will be obvious’. “If there is any, it will stand out a mile,” he added.
As reported earlier, the Kremlin did not congratulate Zelenskiy on his being elected president of Ukraine either.
The 2019 Ukrainian presidential election was held on 31 March and 21 April in a two-round system. Zelenskiy, who had previously had no political experience, won a landslide victory, gaining over 70% of the vote.
At today’s swearing-in ceremony, Volodymyr Zelenskiy read out the text of the oath and received a presidential card, badge, official seal and mace (bulava). In his address to the Ukrainian nation, Zelenskiy announced the dissolution of the Verkhovna Rada and stressed the need for early parliamentary elections. He urged the parliament to abolish the deputies’ immunity and dismiss the head of the Ukrainian Security Service, the prosecutor general, and the defense minister within two months.
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