Ukraine's Presidential Candidate Zelenskiy Presents His Team

Zelenskiy plays ping pong at his campaign HQ. March 31. Photo credit: EPA-EFE/STEPAN FRANKO

Ukrainian presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelenskiy presented his team of 20 experts live on “1+1” TV channel’s political show “Right to Power”. Exactly one week ago the current president Petro Poroshenko came to the same show “uninvited”.

Election favorite brought the following people to the studio:

- Ruslan Stefanchuk - ideologue responsible for reforming state and legal institutions;

- Ivan Bakanov - head of the “Servant of the People” party responsible for relations with Verkhovna Rada;

- Dmytro Razumkov - domestic policy;

- Oleksandr Danyliuk - international relations, economics, financial and banking policies;

- Ruslan Ryaboshapka - law enforcement and anti-corruption policy;

- Halyna Yanchenko - anti-corruption policy expert and digital solutions for the state;

- Denys Monastyrsky - law enforcement agencies;

- Serhiy Ionushas - judiciary;

- Ivan Aparshyn - security and defense expert;

- Iryna Venediktova - reform of the judicial system;

- Serhiy Babak - education and science;

- Maryna Bardina - equal rights and opportunities for women and men;

- Oleh Bondarenko - environmental policy;

- Andriy Herus - energy, housing and communal services and antimonopoly regulation;

- Danylo Hetmantsev - economics, finance and taxation;

- Yevhen Komarovskyi - medicine;

- Serhiy Kalchenko - expert on the electoral legislation of European standards in matters of human rights;

- Oleksandr Merezhko - international relations and democracy;

- Viktoria Strakhova - banking;

- Mykhailo Fedorov - head of the digital sphere of the “Ze! team.”

READ MORE: Zelenskiy Talks to Press Ahead of the Second Round

The candidate noted that this is not the complete list of team experts. There are also other experts who have met with Zelenskiy, but are not part of the team. Zelenskiy also added that in the event of his victory the above-mentioned people will only receive positions after passing the checks performed by the Security Service of Ukraine and anti-corruption authorities.

In response to the question of why he does not speak to the press, Zelenskiy said: "I was not hiding - this is part of my strategy. I can’t go where people from the old system go. It's better to be a pig in a poke than a wolf in sheep’s clothing skin."