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'Chocolate king' wins election

AFP, Kiev
Chocolate baron Petro Poroshenko yesterday claimed victory in Ukraine's presidential election, vowing to bring peace after months of turmoil and a pro-Russian insurgency that thwarted voting across much of the separatist east.
The 48-year-old self-made billionaire, who exit polls said had won almost 56 percent of the vote, swiftly declared that he would work to bring peace to Ukraine.
"My first decisive step will be aimed at ending the war, ending chaos, and bringing peace to a united and free Ukraine," he said at a press conference in Kiev.
"I am certain that our decisive actions will bring fairly quick results," he added.
"The presidential election showed that Ukrainians have cho-
sen the path of European integration, " Poroshenko said.
The results put him far ahead of his nearest rival Yulia Tymoshenko, the former prime minister who spearheaded the 2004 prodemocracy Orange Revolution.
If confirmed by election officials, the results will avoid the need for a June 15 runoff that would have extended political uncertainty at the most painful moment in Ukraine's 23-year-old post-Soviet history.
Ukrainians had voted en masse in the capital Kiev and the west of the country but the insurgency thwarted voting across most of the separatist east.
The election marked the culmination of a revolution that erupted last November, forced a pro-Russian president to flee in February and spiralled into an existential crisis when Moscow responded by declar-
ing its right to invade Ukraine.
The pro-Moscow separatists have proclaimed independent “people’s republics" in the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk and blocked voting there as that would imply they were still part of Ukraine. Nor was any vote held in Crimea, which Russia annexed in March after the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovich.
The insurgency in the Russian-
speaking eastern rust belt - home to seven of Ukraine's 46 million people and most of its heavy industry - has claimed more than 150 lives and unleashed the worst chill in East-West relations since the height of the Cold War.
Turnout was strong in Ukrainian speaking areas of the country but was down to a trickle in eastern cities such as Donetsk where masked gunmen in green fatigues patrolled the streets and thwarted voting in many areas.
Putin, who branded eastern Ukraine “New Russia" last month, has made more accommodating noises of late, saying on Saturday he would respect the voters' will. He has announced the pullback of tens of thousands of Russian troops massed on the border.