Ukraine held a snap parliamentary election today.
Exit polls showed that five parties – the president's Servant of the People, the pro-Russian Opposition Platform-For Life, the ex-president's Petro Poroshenko Bloc, the ex-prime minister's Fatherland and rock singer Svyatoslav Vakarchuk's Voice – are set to make it to parliament.
The Interior Ministry has registered no systemic violations during election day, Deputy Interior Minister Serhiy Yarovyy said. Overall, police registered 2,105 election complaints on 21 July.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he is ready to discuss a coalition in parliament between his Servant of the People party and Svyatoslav Vakarchuk's Voice. He ruled out Yuliya Tymoshenko as a likely candidate for prime minister.
According to Vakarchuk, his priorities are demonopolisation, the deoligarchisation of the media, judicial reform and parliament reform. According to Voice's Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, Voice is also prepared to cooperate with Fatherland and European Solidarity should they accept the new political principles.
Zelenskyy expects a crackdown on corrupt officials to gain momentum after a new government is formed a new prosecutor-general is appointed. He ruled out a possibility of current Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko keeping the post.
In an interview with German ZDF, ex-President Petro Poroshenko called Zelenskyy's strategy a "pig in a poke" and suggested Ukraine was on the verge of a political crisis.
Poroshenko said that his party is ready to join efforts in a new parliament with parties supporting Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration. He sees Voice as his party's "main partner".
The Servant of the People wants parliament of the ninth convocation to have its first session on Independence Day, 24 August, according to its HQ head Oleksandr Korniyenko.
A former deputy governor of the National Bank of Ukraine and the country's representative in the IMF, Vladyslav Rashkovan, may become a new prime minister, sources in Svyatoslav Vakarchuk's Voice party told LB.ua. Voice also wants its representative to head the Finance Ministry.
Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyy decided to step down as leader of the Self-Help Party, which received 0.7% in the election, according to exit polls. He will remain its member though.
Two Ukrainian servicemen got killed and two wounded near Shchastya in Donbas as a result of an explosion of an unidentified explosive device set by the enemy's sabotage and reconnaissance group, the Joint Forces HQ said on Facebook. The so-called "bread ceasefire' along the line of contact came into effect last midnight.