Petro Poroshenko announces bid for second term as Ukraine's president

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko will run for a second term in office in the upcoming elections scheduled to take place in April 2019

The 53-year-old, a confectionary magnate and one of Ukraine's richest men, told thousands of supporters that one of his main priorities would be for Ukraine to join the European Union.

"The feeling of deep responsibility before the country, before contemporaries, before past and future generations prompted me to decide to run again for the presidency," the pro-EU and pro-NATO candidate said.

Poroshenko came to power in the 2014 elections after mass protests forced out former president Viktor Yanukovich.

However, he has lost popularity because of his inability to combat corruption and stop the war in the eastern Donbas region, which has claimed more than 10,000 lives.

Poroshenko, however, may be a more predictable option for investors than his nearest challengers such as former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko or Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a political novice who achieved fame as a comic actor.

Tymoshenko, the frontrunner, wants to cut gas prices for households, which may set her on a collision course with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other foreign backers who pumped billions into Ukraine to keep its war-scarred economy afloat.