POROSHENKO SWORN IN AS UKRAINE'S PRESIDENT
Petro Poroshenko
was sworn in as Ukraine's fifth post-Soviet
President on Saturday, vowing to maintain the unity of his country amid a
continuing crisis with Russia.
Poroshenko, a 48-year-old billionaire who won the
presidential election on May 25 with 54.7 percent of the vote, took the oath in
the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev.
"I am assuming the presidency in order to preserve and strengthen
Ukraine's unity," Poroshenko said in an address that alternated between
Ukrainian and Russian.
Speaking to an audience that included US Vice President Joseph Biden, he
promised the residents of the Donbass region, which is largely in rebel hands,
that he would decentralise power and guarantee the free use of the Russian
language.
But he also said that there would be no compromise with Russia on his
pro-European stance and the status of the Crimean peninsula.
"Crimea has been and will remain Ukrainian," he said.
"I put that clearly to the Russian leader in Normandy," he added,
referring to his meeting with President Vladimir Putin at D-Day commemorations
yesterday.
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