Ukraine’s president elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy is to be sworn into office during Monday’s parliamentary ceremonial meeting that will begin at 10:00 (local time).
The presidents of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Vice-Premiers of Belarus, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia, EU top officials, ministers of the US, Canada, France and Poland are expected to take part in today’s inauguration, Zelenskiy’s press secretary Kateryna Zelenko said. According to previous reports by Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, the representatives of Russia were not invited.
Deputy Prime Minister Ihar Lyashenka is representing Belarus at the swearing-in ceremony in Kyiv. It should be noted that Belarusian president Alyaksandr Lukashenka attended the inauguration event of Petro Poroshenko who was elected president in 2014.
The newly elected president encouraged everyone interested to come to Mariinsky park and join a march that his team arranged before the ceremony:
“We were going to hold the inauguration on May 19, not on May 20, as the Verkhovna Rada decided. We wanted it to take place on the weekend in order not to court trouble and jam the roads. But the Rada voted as it voted. Forgive us, forgive the Rada. The MPs have created a nuisance to us, and we promise that we will create nuisances to them.”
