"The foreign policy of Kiev under the new president will depend on the presidential administration and, apparently, the new foreign minister of Ukraine," Director of the Ukrainian Analytical Center Oleksandr Okhrimenko told Report, commenting on the possible change in the vectors of the foreign policy of this country on the back of Volodymyr Zelensky's victory at the presidential elections in Ukraine.
"The foreign policy towards Europe, NATO and the European Union will remain the same. Nothing will change, the new government is coming, but the vector (foreign policy - ed.) is preserved," Okhrimenko said.
Speaking about building future relations between Ukraine and Russia, the expert stressed that at the moment it is not clear how events will develop in this direction: “Volodymyr Zelensky gave different statements in essence – one day he is for friendship, another day he is not for friendship though the need to restore relations was noted in the last statement of Zelensky's election headquarters. Here it is important to note that these are not his words, but the words of his headquarters. According to the expert, to understand the alignment of Kiev’s foreign policy with the new president, it is necessary to know who will be included in the future presidential administration.
"Secondly, I wonder who Zelensky will nominate for the post of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, since this is the prerogative and function of the president. Klimkin will likely be replaced, which is quite expected. Perhaps, he will appoint such an anti-Russian figure that Moscow will be stunned, " Okhrimenko said.
"Do you know what is good about Zelensky? He is a 'white sheet'. He cannot be accused today of some kind of 'anti-' because at the moment he doesn’t have a trail of compromising materials, unlike Petro Poroshenko,” the political expert said.
In his opinion, after the inauguration, Volodymyr Zelensky will first of all go on a tour of European countries - Paris, Berlin, which will indicate the main vector of Ukraine’s foreign policy.
Commenting on the development of Azerbaijani-Ukrainian cooperation after Zelensky's election, the expert said that countries could strengthen cooperation in the field of energy. "I draw your attention: Russia has banned the import of oil to Ukraine. Azerbaijan currently supplies oil to Ukraine. If things go right, I think that oil imports to Ukraine can increase dramatically," the expert said.