Poroshenko pledges to step up anti-terrorism operation, bring success within ‘hours,’ not months

The billionaire oligarch who has taken all political sides since Ukraine’s independence outlined two priorities: restoring peace after months of Kremlin-backed war and restoring economic growth after months of recession.

Despite expressing a willingness to talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin and seek a peaceful resolution to the Kremlin-instigated war, Poroshenko vowed to more aggressively pursue the nation’s anti-terrorist operation to root out terrorists in the Donbas eastern oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk.

“I am not going to hold any dialogues with the criminals. You don’t talk to terrorists,” he said. “The anti-terrorist operation will not and cannot last for months, it will last just for hours.”

He pledged to immediately improve the army’s supplies and equipment. “From now and on our soldiers will be much better equipped and much better supplied, all of them will have life insurance and high salaries,” Poroshenko said.

After decades of neglect, Poroshenko said that the Ukrainian army is just being born and he pledged a fighting force that the nation can take pride in.

Poroshenko also vowed to never accept Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and promised to pursue redredress in international courts.

He expects to meet his Russian counterpart next month.

“I am sure we should take these talks very seriously and held them in the first part of June,” Poroshenko said. 

Rusisan Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia is ready to talk with Poroshenko.

“We hear what Petro Poroshenko is saying in relation to his aims in relation to the Russian Federation that they are the most important. We, as President Vladimir Putin has stated more than once, are ready for dialogue with Kyiv, with Petro Poroshenko,” Lavrov said. Russia is ready to establish “pragmatic, equal dialogue on the basis that exists — implementation of all existing agreements, including trade and economic, the gas sector and the search for those solutions within confines of relations of Russia and Ukraine that exist.”

Poroshenko will also speak with the people of the Donbas, home to nearly 15 percent of the nation’s 45 million people, and most of whom — according to surveys — want to stay within Ukraine.

“A president should be a president of all people regardless their political position. And I am strongly determined to held a dialogue with everyone there no matter they voted for me or not,” he said.

He pledged amnesty tho those who have not committed crimes. He also pledged jobs to the region. He also said that he is willing to decentralize budget and tax powers away from Kyiv to the regions and uphold the official status of the Russian language for those who prefer not to use Ukrainian.

Klitschko, who leads the Kyiv mayoral elections with more than 57 percent of votes according to a Savik Shuster exit poll, hopes Ukrainians can return to their peaceful lives soon.

“I am sure that barricades have fulfilled their function and Kyiv should go back to its normal life,” Klitschko said, answering a question from a Russian journalist about the fate of the EuroMaidan Revolution tent cities on Khreshchatyk Street. “First of all we should free the main street for traffic. We know this won’t be easy but we will talk to people to settle this.”

Klitschko thinks Kyiv should set a good example for all other cities in Ukraine’s regions. Poroshenko agreed, saying that he wants to de-arm the informal militias that have sprung up.

Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at shevchenko@kyivpost.com