Kharkiv mayor backs Poroshenko for re-election

Hennadiy Kernes, the mayor of Ukraine’s second-largest
city Kharkiv, said on Dec. 26 he will back Petro Poroshenko’s bid for
re-election as president. “He offered quite a bit of effort for Kharkiv to have
financing for its metro, financing from the European Bank for Reconstruction
and Development, the European Investment Bank, the World Bank. Also issues
related to decentralization, improvement in interbudgetary relations,” he told
journalists. Kernes acknowledged that Poroshenko is not popular among the city’s
residents, stating that “communication with residents and explanatory efforts
by the president are necessary.”

Poroshenko has the support of 9% of the residents of
the Kharkiv region in his re-election bid, or fifth among current candidates,
according to a poll conducted between Nov. 16 and Dec. 10 by the Rating
Sociological Group. Yuriy Boyko, a Russian-oriented MP involved in the natural
gas trade, is the region’s most popular candidate for president.

Zenon Zawada: Kernes’s support helps the Ukrainian government pre-empt any
pro-Russian riots and insurgencies from being provoked in Kharkiv during the
elections next year. Nonetheless, Kernes’s position makes apparent the large
gap between those in authority in eastern Ukraine, and the sentiments of the
public that the Russian government is currently trying to exploit. Southeastern
Ukrainians, particularly the 1.5 mln residents of Kharkiv, will determine the
future of Ukrainian statehood with their conduct during the turbulent elections
of 2019.