A bus drives past a billboard depicting Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin looking at each other in Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, April 17, 2019. (Sergei Grits/Associated Press)KIEV, Ukraine — The comedian who is odds-on favorite in Ukraine’s presidential election promised Thursday to hold a nationwide referendum on joining NATO only after building a national consensus on the issue. Zelenskiy added that he would appeal to people living in the mostly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine to dispel their negative view of NATO. “It would be necessary to take a lot of humanitarian steps.”Zelenskiy also said he would push for an early parliamentary election. Ukraine’s Supreme Rada is controlled by Poroshenko’s ruling party, and the next parliamentary election is due at the end of October.

Source: Washington Post April 18, 2019 09:36 UTC