Lithuanian president urges Ukraine's new leader to 'crush' oligarchic system

  • 2019-05-21
  • BNS/TBT Staff

VILNIUS - Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite called on Ukraine's new leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, on Monday to "crush" the country's deeply-rooted oligarchic system.  

"The new president wants a lot of new changes. People do place great hopes on him," Grybauskaite said after meeting with Zelensky in Kiev following his inauguration, according to the audio recording released by her press service.  

"Therefore, these changes are possible if people support him, and, of course, if this president manages to make use of that support and of the current situation to finally crush the oligarchic system, which was created and has existed in Ukraine for almost 30 years," she said.  

Grybauskaite said Ukraine was facing "many challenges, but also great opportunities".