‘Chocolate King’ Poroshenko claims victory in Ukraine election (LIVE BLOG)

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White House releases Obama's statement on Ukrainian elections

On behalf of all Americans, I congratulate the people of Ukraine for making their voices heard by voting in their presidential election today. Despite provocations and violence, millions of Ukrainians went to the polls throughout the country, and even in parts of eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed separatist groups sought to disenfranchise entire regions, some courageous Ukrainians still were able to cast their ballots. We commend the resolve of all those who participated, as well as the efforts of the Ukrainian government to conduct these elections in the face of those threats.

Throughout the last few months, the Ukrainian people have repeatedly demonstrated their desire to choose their leaders without interference and to live in a democracy where they can determine their own future free of violence and intimidation. This election is another important step forward in the efforts of the Ukrainian government to unify the country and reach out to all of its citizens to ensure their concerns are addressed and aspirations met.

The United States looks forward to working with the next President, as well as the democratically elected parliament, to support Ukraine’s efforts to enact important political and economic reforms. We also continue to support Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, condemn and reject Russia’s occupation and attempted annexation of Crimea, and remain committed to working with Ukraine and other partners to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

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Poroshenko pledges closer ties with Europe

Reuters — Confectionery magnate Petro Poroshenko claimed Ukraine's presidency on Sunday after exit polls gave him a clear absolute majority of first-round votes and he pledged to steer the ex-Soviet state into the European mainstream.

"All the polls show that the election has been completed in one round and the country has a new president," said the burly 48-year-old billionaire who has long experience in government.

At his campaign headquarters, he told supporters the majority of Ukrainians had given him a mandate to continue a course of integration with the rest of Europe but said his first priority was to travel to the east of the country to end "war and chaos" caused by pro-Russian separatist rebels.

Tymoshenko concedes

Poroshenko's victory speech

'Chocolate King' Poroshenko projected to win absolute majority, avoid runoff

Reuters — Confectionary magnate Petro Poroshenko won Ukraine's presidential election on Sunday with an absolute majority, exit polls showed, averting the need for a runoff vote next month that he had said could destabilize the country.

Two polls gave Poroshenko, a billionaire businessman with long experience in government, 55.9 to 57.3 percent, well ahead of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko in second place with just over 12 percent. If confirmed by results on Monday, there will be no need for a runoff vote on June 15.

Ukrainians, weary of six months of political turmoil, hope their new president will be able to pull their country of 45 million people back from the brink of bankruptcy, dismemberment and civil war.

But, highlighting the scale of the challenge facing Poroshenko, armed pro-Russian separatists barred people from voting in much of Ukraine's Donbass industrial heartland on Sunday, turning the main city of Donetsk into a ghost town.

Poroshenko, 48, has promised closer economic and political ties with the West in defiance of Russian President Vladimir Putin, but he will also have to try to mend shattered relations with Ukraine's giant northern neighbor, which provides most of its natural gas and is the major market for its exports.

Now would be a good time to read Dan Peleschuk's profile of the man.

More on Poroshenko's possible majority

Reuters — An exit poll on Sunday indicated that Ukrainian confectionery tycoon Petro Poroshenko was elected president after securing an absolute majority in the first round of voting.

The poll gave 48-year-old Poroshenko 55.9 percent, well ahead of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko in second place with 12.9 percent. If confirmed by results on Monday, this outcome would avert the need for a runoff vote next month.

The National Exit Poll 2014, conducted by a consortium of Democratic Initiative, the Kiev International Sociology Institute (KMIS) and the Razumkov Ukrainian Centre for Economic and Political Research, had an error margin of 3.5 percent.

Polls close in Ukraine

Polling stations were set to close at 8 p.m. in Ukraine, but journalists like BuzzFeed's Max Seddon spotted people still waiting to vote:

And the Associated Press is already calling a somewhat predictable outcome:

Every voter in Ukraine has their own cause to vote for

From Senior Correspondent Dan Peleschuk:

KYIV, Ukraine — These days, Ukraine faces a daunting kaleidoscope of problems: a plummeting economy, the violent separatist insurgency in the east, bitter cultural and ideological divides, and a shaky young government that’s struggling to deal with it all.

Which is why it’s unsurprising that when Ukrainians went to the polls on Sunday, each had their very own reason.

Voters in Kyiv who spoke to GlobalPost cited everything from economic improvement to the preservation of national unity as their primary concerns amid Ukraine’s post-revolutionary crisis.

For some, pension reform was a crucial priority, while others wanted to see the country’s embattled military strengthened.

The overarching aspiration, however, appeared to be the very reason Ukraine’s months-long, pro-European protest movement kicked off in the first place.

“I want our children to grow up prosperous and happy, like they would in a truly European country,” said Natalia Vasilievna, 52-year-old history teacher who voted for billionaire chocolate magnate Petro Poroshenko.

Photo by Dan Peleschuk

Poroshenko, set to sweep Sunday’s first round of elections, has basically promised that much, arguing that European integration is a top priority for Ukraine.

But while some expect Poroshenko to walk away with a one-round win, not everybody is a fan.

Natasha Kalugina, a 53-year-old Kyiv resident, said she voted for former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who has trailed far behind Poroshenko in the polls.

“I don’t like how he carries himself, and I don’t like the fact that he’s a billionaire.”

Unlike many Poroshenko supporters, Kalugina was skeptical about the fact that Poroshenko appeared on Independence Square — the nerve center of the protests — and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the protesters.

“He wasn’t there when they were shooting everyone,” she said, referring to the violent days before President Viktor Yanukovych’s ouster when police and snipers opened fire on demonstrators, killing more than 100.

Besides, Kalugina added, she backs Tymoshenko’s vow to repeal unpopular legislation passed under Yanukovych that raised the retirement age.

“It’s like a closed circle: there’s no pension money, but there’s also no work,” she said.

Photo by Dan Peleschuk

While many Ukrainians see this election as a moment of post-revolutionary closure, they’re also careful not to give up their hopes.

After all, most of the candidates are well known faces who’ve kicked around Ukraine’s notoriously chaotic political landscape for years.

Oleksandr Rudyk, a 19-year-old university student, voted for controversial radical politician Oleh Lyashko, who shot to fame in recent weeks for his vigilante-style safaris during which he captured and humiliated pro-Russian separatist leaders on camera.

“He’s clearly not a very ordinary person compared to the other candidates, but he does what he promises,” he said.

But regardless, Rudyk added, the newly elected president “will need to work on themselves before all else.”

“If the person doesn’t change,” he said, “then nothing else will.”

Photo by Dan Peleschuk

Weird weather hits Kyiv

As if Ukrainians didn't have enough to deal with, Kyiv threw some weird weather their way:

Kyiv's voters

Senior Correspondent Dan Peleschuk is in Kyiv, talking to voters:

The Right Sector is a quasi-militant nationalist group that was deeply involved in the Maidan protests in Kyiv. Moscow and pro-Russian separatists accuse members of being fascists. Here is more on the Right Sector's involvement in the Maidan protests in February.

Pro-Russians try to storm oligarch's house in Donetsk

Reuters — Scores of armed pro-Russian separatists massed outside the walled home of Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, in the eastern city of Donetsk on Sunday as Ukrainians voted for a new president.

The rebels, roundly denounced by Akhmetov, have prevented voting in Donetsk, an industrial hub of a million people, and other parts of mainly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, where they have declared "people's republics" outside Kyiv's control.

Coal and steel billionaire Akhmetov, whose factories and mines employ about 300,000 people, denounced the rebels last week, accusing them of "genocide," and urged people to vote on Sunday despite intimidation and threats from the separatists.

The 47-year-old, who also owns Shakhtar Donetsk soccer club, was in the capital Kyiv when about 200-300 separatists and supporters advanced on his residence, a spokesman said.

"Mr. Akhmetov is today in Kyiv. He had intended to return to Donetsk to vote but as you can see from what is happening there and on the streets this has not been possible," said Jock Mendoza-Wilson at Akhmetov's company, System Capital Management.

Some of the men were masked and were aggressive towards journalists as they gathered by the high walls of Akhmetov's suburban residence, which is protected by armed security guards.

Journalists at the scene later said the crowd had calmed down and appeared to be negotiating with representatives on Akhmetov's side though it was not clear with whom.

It appears Kyiv Post's Christopher Miller kept track of the events in Donetsk:

What it looks like in Ukraine

Here is a snapshot of the elections through Western journalists across Ukraine, including our Senior Correspondent Dan Peleschuk, who is in Kyiv:

A shaky Ukraine goes to the polls in high numbers nonetheless

Reuters — Ukrainians voted on Sunday in a presidential election billed as the most important since they won their independence from Moscow 23 years ago, but armed pro-Russian separatists disrupted voting in eastern regions of the former Soviet republic.

Early signs pointed to a high turnout in sunny weather in an election where the main candidates, including front-runner Petro Poroshenko, a confectionery magnate, are promising closer ties with the West in defiance of Russia's President Vladimir Putin.

But the absence of over 15 percent of the electorate, in Russian-annexed Crimea and two eastern regions where fighting with pro-Moscow rebels continued on Saturday, may mar any result — and leave the Kremlin questioning the victor's legitimacy, for all Putin's new pledge to respect the people's will.

Voting began in most of Ukraine at 8 a.m. (1 a.m. EDT) and will end 12 hours later, when exit polls will indicate a result ahead of an official outcome on Monday.

Only about 20 percent of the polling stations in the heavily industrialized, Russian-speaking Donetsk region, which has 3.3 million registered voters, were working as of 9:30 a.m. (2.30 a.m. EDT), authorities said. None were open in the city of Donetsk.

"These are extremely important elections. We have to make sure Ukraine becomes a truly independent country, a powerful independent state that nobody will be able to push around," said pensioner Mikhailo Belyk, 65, casting his ballot at a crowded polling station in a southeast district of the capital Kyiv.

Sounding an equally upbeat note, businessman Viktor Sypchenko, 45, said: "I am voting for my children and their future. I hope we can break free from our awful past."

In the east, a 'campaign of terror'

The picture emerging in the east was more confused. European election monitors have largely pulled out of the Donetsk region for their own safety, citing a campaign of "terror" by pro-Russian separatists against Ukrainian electoral officials.

At a school in a Donetsk suburb, pensioner Grigory Nikitayich, 72, was unhappy about being denied the right to vote for Poroshenko. "I don't even know where I can vote. No one has said anything. What kind of polls are these? Things are bad."

Others also complained of being prevented from voting, in some cases because ballot papers had not been delivered due to security concerns after at least 20 people were killed in the region during fighting over recent days.

The chocolate king vs. the gas princess

Polls make Poroshenko, known as the "chocolate king" because of his confectionery empire, the overwhelming favorite to win Sunday's election. The biggest question is whether he can take over 50 percent to win outright. If not, a run-off vote will be held on June 15.

He was a strong backer of the protests against Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovych last winter and has sought a quick victory by warning that new unrest might prevent a second round.

His closest, if distant, rival is Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister. She remains a divisive figure to many, more closely linked than Poroshenko with the economic failures and graft that have blighted post-Soviet Ukraine.

"It is time to hold a referendum on joining NATO to restore peace in Ukraine," said Tymoshenko after voting in her native city of Dnipropetrovsk in central Ukraine. Russia is fiercely opposed to Ukraine joining the Western military alliance.

As Yanukovych's fiercest rival, Tymoshenko may benefit from the fact that few of the 5 million voters in his eastern power base regions of Donetsk and Luhansk may be able to cast ballots for any of the 21 candidates.

Interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk urged Ukrainians to hand the new president a strong mandate to forge closer ties with the European Union and move Ukraine away from a "grey zone of lawlessness and dark forces that dream of suffocating us and into … a place where it is easier to breathe."

The West has backed the interim government since mass street protests toppled Moscow-backed Yanukovych in February.

But Russia characterized the protests as a "fascist coup." Citing the need to defend Ukraine's large Russian-speaking population, it seized Crimea and backed the separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The West hopes that a new leader in Kyiv can help resolve a confrontation with Russia that has sparked military buildups east and west of Ukraine and raised fears of a new Cold War.

Putin pledged on Saturday to "respect" the people's choice and work with Ukraine's new administration — a conciliatory move during an economic forum at which he had acknowledged that US and EU sanctions over Ukraine were hurting the Russian economy.

But he defended his annexation of Crimea in March as a response to the democratic will of the majority ethnic Russian population there. Kyiv and its Western allies accuse Moscow of a propaganda war to sow fear among Russian-speakers in eastern and southern Ukraine of "fascist" Ukrainian nationalists and of supporting rebel forces who have seized many towns in the east.

Two weeks ago, separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions ran referendums they said let them break from Kiev and opened a way to possibly following Crimea into union with Russia — though Moscow denies any plan to seize any more Ukrainian territory.

Opinion polls before the last few months of violence showed disillusion with Kyiv's politicians in the east but limited appetite for outright secession.

Putin played down talk of a return to Cold War with the West and dismissed the idea he was bent on restoring the former USSR, whose collapse he has in the past lamented.

Washington and its EU allies are concerned that while Russia may accept the election result, it may use influence in eastern Ukraine to undermine the new president's authority and keep the country beholden to Moscow. Russian officials have questioned the value of holding the vote when the east is in "civil war."

Since the 2004 "Orange Revolution" that kept Yanukovych from power, Ukrainians of all stripes have been disappointed with a decade of economic drift and graft that won them the dubious distinction of being named Europe's most corrupt country. Their hopes for a fresh start are pinned on Sunday's vote.

Few of the leading candidate are new faces, however.

Both Poroshenko and Tymoshenko played leading roles in the administrations that preceded Yanukovych's defeat of Tymoshenko in the 2010 election. Poroshenko, now a burly 48-year-old, later held a cabinet post for a time under Yanukovych.

Both became wealthy in the anarchic post-Soviet 1990s, Poroshenko, now worth $1.3 billion according to Forbes, through his candy and chocolate empire, Tymoshenko as the "gas princess" involved in the trade and transit of Russian natural gas.

After the Orange Revolution, when he was head of the National Security Council and she prime minister, the two traded accusations of corruption. Tymoshenko, 53, was jailed in 2011 for corrupt gas deals with Russia but was released when Yanukovych was toppled and her record cleared.