Ukraine

ST. PETERSBURG, April 24. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will develop relations with Ukraine taking into consideration statements and actions by new Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"Anyway, the Russian president as a person who determines Russia’s foreign policy, including its Ukrainian vector, will communicate with Ukraine’s leadership based on [Zelensky’s] specific statements and actions," Peskov said.

KIEV, April 22. /TASS/. Ukraine’s front-running presidential contender Vladimir Zelensky increased his lead in the runoff election, with 90.25% of ballots counted.

According to the Ukrainian Central Election Commission, Zelensky secured 73.18% of the vote in the presidential race. Incumbent President Pyotr Poroshenko is losing ground, garnering just 24.49% of the vote.

More than 12.2 mln voters backed Zelensky and over 4 mln Ukrainians supported Poroshenko.

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — A comedian whose only political experience consists of playing a president on TV cruised toward a landslide victory in Ukraine’s presidential election Sunday in what was seen as a reaction against the country’s entrenched corruption and low standard of living.

Results from 52% of polling stations’ tallies showed sitcom star Volodymyr Zelenskiy receiving 73% of the vote and President Petro Poroshenko about 25% — a crushing rebuke to Poroshenko’s five years in office.

KIEV, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainians began to cast their ballots on Sunday in a second round of the country's presidential election between actor Volodymyr Zelensky and incumbent President Petro Poroshenko.

The polling stations opened at 8:00 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) and will close at 8:00 p.m. (1700 GMT).

More than 30.3 million voters are eligible to cast their ballots. 199 electoral districts were set up in the country with over 29,900 polling stations. There are also polling stations created abroad.

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?"

DONETSK, April 14. /TASS/. Four Ukrainian soldiers were killed in a skirmish with activists of the Right Sector nationalist organization (outlawed in Russia) in the settlement of Avdeyevka, Daniil Bezsonov, a spokesman for the defense ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), said on Sunday.

"Right Sector militants who arrived in Avdeyevka seized the premises of the Tsarskaya Okhota compound without consent from the command of the 93rd brigade," the Donetsk News Agency quoted him as saying.

KIEV, April 4. /TASS/. Servant of the People Party’s presidential candidate Vladimir Zelensky believes that if he becomes the head of state, he could be victorious in the Donbass conflict. To that end, he is willing to try every means possible.

"It is impossible to stop the war," he said to the Radio Liberty journalists. "You either win or lose the war. And we can win by means of diplomacy, economic growth and reinforcing the army."

SIMFEROPOL, April 4. /TASS/. The Kiev District Court of Simferopol has arrested Mayor of Yevpatoria Andrei Filonov until March 31 on the suspicion of abuse of power, TASS reports from the court hall.

"Arrest for one month and 28 days, until March 31, will be chosen as a measure of restraint," the judge stated.

Earlier, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) launched a criminal case against Filonov under suspicion of abuse of power. Filonov has served as head of the city’s administration since November 2014.

KIEV, April 2. /TASS/. Comedian and leader of the Servant of the People political party Vladimir Zelensky leads the Ukrainian presidential race with 30.26% of the vote, almost double the number of incumbent President Pyotr Poroshenko, who secured 15.92%, with 97.77% of ballots counted, the Central Election Commission said.

KIEV, April 1. /TASS/. The frontrunner in the first round of the Ukrainian presidential election, comedian Vladimir Zelensky, has not made any alliance deals with anyone in the run-up to the second round of the race, a spokesperson for Zelensky’s election headquarters, Dmitry Razumkov, said on Monday.