Pro-Western blocs win Ukraine election in first vote since February’s revolution

Pro-Western parties will dominate Ukraine’s parliament after the first elections to the body since February’s revolution, exit polls suggest. The Poroshenko Bloc - controlled by President Petro Poroshenko - earned 23 per cent of the vote, while a party aligned with Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk secured 21.3 per cent. Both parties favour policies designed to bring Ukraine closer to the Europe, and in a statement issued on Saturday Poroshenko said that a parliamentary majority would help him govern more effectively. Poroshenko hailed the victory as proof Ukrainians supported his efforts to negotiate peace with pro-Russian rebels in the east of the country.

More than three quarters of voters who took part in the polls gave strong and irreversible backing to Ukraine’s path to Europe.

President Petro Poroshenko

There are fears that the election’s outcome could result in the divide between the nation’s Russian-speaking east and Ukrainian-speaking west becoming permanent. Some 2.8 million voters were unable to cast a ballot, as the election was not held in Crimea or in the warring eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. Insurgent leaders in the areas where fighting continues are planning their own vote for 2 November, but the result will not be acknowledged by Kiev.

We need a new parliament to make a European future. We have drawn a line under our Soviet past.”

Ukrainian voter Tatyana Kryshko, 75

Europe Ukraine