Ceremonies kicked off Saturday to confirm Petro Poroshenko as Ukrainian president amid hopes that the billionaire businessman will end the country's deep political crisis, which has poisoned relations between Russia and the West, according to dpa. Poroshenko, who was elected May 25 with more than 54 per cent of the vote, assumes office amid ongoing bloody clashes between government forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, which have claimed at least 180 lives since April, according to official figures. The ceremony in the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, is being attended by high-ranking delegations from Western governments, which include US Vice President Joe Biden, EU President Herman Van Rompuy and the presidents of Poland and Germany, Bronislaw Komorowski and Joachim Gauck. Russian President Vladimir Putin was explicitly not invited, but Moscow is being represented by Ambassador Mikhail Zurabov, who was officially sent back to Kiev after being recalled "for consultations" earlier this year. Russia has taken a hostile stance against the pro-Western government in Kiev by denouncing its members as a "junta" and accusing the United States and the European Union of supporting a violent putsch. However, Putin has neither called Poroshenko's election illegitimate nor endorsed it. Instead, he has said he will "respect the choice" of the Ukrainian people. Poroshenko succeeds Viktor Yanukovych, who was impeached by parliament in February after fleeing Kiev following three months of mass protests against his government. Parliamentary speaker Oleksandr Turchynov, who stood in as acting head of state in the meantime, is stepping aside to focus on his parliamentary role. dpa 11:11 LOCAL TIME 08:11 GMT تغريد
