Polls predict Volodymyr Zelensky will beat incumbent Petro Poroshenko in Sunday’s runoff.
By Anton Troianovski Anton Troianovski Moscow bureau chief covering Russia Email Bio Follow April 19 at 7:18 AM ZAPORIZHIA, Ukraine — Zoya Troshina plans to vote for a comedian for president on Sunday. She says she wants peace in her country.The comedian, 41-year-old Volodymyr Zelensky, is widely considered the front-runner against incumbent Petro Poroshenko in Sunday’s runoff election, possibly making Ukraine the latest nation to cast its future with an untested outsider.
Other recent polls have shown Zelensky with a similar margin, while Poroshenko’s standing has been dragged down by the war, corruption scandals and a struggling economy. Moscow annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014 and backed a separatist war that the United Nations says has claimed about 13,000 lives. Zelensky has laid out few details on how he would stop the conflict in the east, other than to say he would not give up territory and was prepared to negotiate directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
It would also signal that many voters’ dreams of a more progressive state have been dashed five years after Ukraine’s pro-Western revolution, referred to as Maidan after the Kiev square that was its focal point. He often speaks Russian in his public appearances, as does his presidential character on TV. He has called for the government to reach out to Ukrainians in the Russian-speaking east in the Russian language and to tread carefully in limiting the language on the airwaves.
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