The time for Ukraine to move forward is now

After months of political turmoil, violence and the near slip of eastern regions of Ukraine into the abyss of civil war, there at last appears to be light on the horizon. Pro-European billionaire businessman Petro Poroshenko was on Sunday elected Ukraine’s new President with a comfortable 56 per cent of support.

His margin of victory sends a strong message that it is now time for the ethnically and politically divided nation to move forward. Yes, there can be no going back now, given the fact that Ukraine has lost Crimea. However, for those separatists in the east who had hoped for unity with Russia, the scale and scope of Poroshenko’s victory gives him a strong mandate to resolve the crisis. And after a decade of infighting, revolution and the levelling of politically motivated criminal charges against politicians, the time to stop is now — and the time to move forward is now.

What is disappointing is that millions of voters in the east decided not to cast their votes. Sadly, if they believed that not voting was a statement of condemnation of Ukraine’s politics, they were mistaken. Participation in the democratic process is essential to finding a solution and Sunday’s vote was legitimate — unlike the separatist referendums that split away Crimea and backed the Donestsk region as an independent pro-Moscow entity.

One of Poroshenko’s first acts was to state that he wanted a new dialogue with Russia to resolve the crisis once and for all. There should be no objections to that.