Immediately after being inaugurated as Ukraine’s president on Monday, Volodymyr Zelensky called for the national parliament to be disbanded.
“I dissolve the Verkhovna Rada of the eighth convocation,” Zelensky told the legislature. He demanded snap elections by the end of July, instead of October as had been planned.
Many current members of parliament have connections with the former president, Petro Poroshenko, whom Zelensky defeated in a run-off last month with about three-quarters of the votes.
Zelensky also requested that the prime minister’s cabinet resign during his inauguration speech. In response, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman announced he would comply.
“I have decided to tender my resignation immediately after the next cabinet meeting is conducted on Wednesday,” Groysman, an ally of Poroshenko, said in a televised address.
Previously a television actor, Zelensky, 41, campaigned as an alternative to a political establishment that has long…
