This should have been a festive spring day, when citizens who fought to overthrow their corrupt and autocratic government voted for a new president in a free and fair election. But the mood at the polls here on a warm and sunny Sunday was sober. Ukrainians feel themselves to be at war, and their hopes that their votes will revive the country are tempered. 
 
 “I’m a realist,” said Katya Lapina, a 25-year-old office worker, outside a polling station in the Kiev suburbs. “I don’t think after this day everything will change. It’s the first step in a very long way. I just hope the future president will remember the price we spent for this.” 
 
 That remains to be seen. The big winner in Sunday’s vote was not the idealistic young protesters who spent the winter in Kiev’s Maidan square but Petro Poroshenko, one of Ukraine’s billionaire business magnates. Poroshenko, who made his money producing chocolate, joined the Maidan movement and helped steer it away from violence. But he is very much a figure of Ukraine’s failed past — dysfunctional governments, outsized oligarchs and epic corruption. 
 
 Thanks in no small part to Russian aggression, the oligarchs, who along with thuggish president Viktor Yanukovych were the targets of the Maidan, have emerged from the revolution stronger than ever. Three are actual or de facto governors of eastern provinces where Russia has been fomenting armed insurrection. Two are sponsoring their own militias to push back against the pro-Moscow separatist movements. 
 
 Poroshenko will take office owing those men, whose predations on the Ukrainian state did much to create the economic mess that the new government must try to clean up. He also may owe Dmytro Firtash, a shadowy figure who made a fortune brokering gas deals between Russia and Ukraine and is under a U.S. indictment for bribery. Firtash backed Poroshenko and is reported to have helped cut a deal under which one of Poroshenko’s principal challengers withdrew from the presidential race (though the candidate’s staff denies it). Firtash is also close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who considers Ukrainian presidents to be his rightful vassals. 
 
 As disheartening as all this may be to Ukrainians longing for an economy and political system worthy of the European Union, it may also explain why Putin has ratcheted back his armed aggression inside Ukraine and hinted he will recognize the new government. Western diplomats and some Ukrainian analysts suspect that the Kremlin may be open to bargaining with Poroshenko, or may already be talking to him through Firtash or others. That makes the ascent of the chocolate king a hopeful prospect for the Obama administration, Germany and other European governments, who would welcome the chance to back away from confrontation with Putin. 
 
 Poroshenko talks of making Ukraine a partner of both the West and Russia, of signing an association agreement with the European Union and a free trade agreement with Moscow. He says he’ll use force to clear Russian-sponsored separatist militants from the two eastern provinces where they occupy government buildings, but that he’ll also move quickly on constitutional reforms that would decentralize power to those regions. “If Putin actually wants a deal,” says one Western official, “he can do it with Poroshenko.” 
 
 So what of the sweeping economic and political reforms that the Maidan movement demanded? Poroshenko and the cobbled-together parliamentary government with which he will share power say they are still on the agenda. It helps that a detailed road map already exists, in the form of Ukraine’s agreements with the European Union and International Monetary Fund. The cabinet under Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has already taken the first painful steps: a 56 percent increase in gas prices; 25,000 civil service layoffs; a cut in child subsidies. 
 
 The corruption of the previous government was so staggering that some think big improvements could be relatively easy. An European ambassador says that $70 billion may have been diverted from the government budget over five years; reduce that graft by just 20 percent and the government could match the bailout it’s getting from the IMF. 
 
 But can Poroshenko rein in the oligarchs? For years many of them have feasted on cheap energy, lucrative and opaque government procurement contracts and access to uncompetitive Russian markets. Putin could take away the latter — he has already blocked Poroshenko’s chocolate sales — while the West demands reform of the rest. Past governments — Poroshenko served in three of them — invariably dodged the IMF and cut shady deals with Putin. 
 
 If there is a difference this time, it is that the people who turned out on the Maidan and at the polls Sunday are more engaged. “We have to be open and honest with people, tell them the truth and not be corrupted,” Yatsenyuk’s chief cabinet minister, Ostap Semerak, told a group I joined from the German Marshall Fund. “Otherwise the people will turn on us.” 
 
 Read more from Jackson Diehl’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. ||||| KIEV, Ukraine — Caught in a battle for influence between Russia and the West, Ukrainians elected Petro O. Poroshenko as president on Sunday, turning to a pro-European billionaire to lead them out of six months of turmoil. 
 
 The special election was called by Parliament to replace Viktor F. Yanukovych, who fled Kiev on Feb. 21 after a failed but bloody attempt to suppress a civic uprising, and whose toppling as president set off Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea. 
 
 While the election allows Ukraine to open a new chapter in its history, and even President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has indicated recently that he would accept the result, Mr. Poroshenko now faces the excruciatingly difficult task of trying to calm and reunite a country that has been on the edge of financial collapse, and on the verge of a civil war. Among his chief tasks will be to ease tensions with Russia. 
 
 “The first steps of our team at the beginning of the presidential work will be to put an end to war, to put an end to chaos, to end disorder, and to bring peace to the land of Ukraine — united, unitary Ukraine,” Mr. Poroshenko said in a speech at an arts center in Kiev, where he declared victory shortly after the polls closed. He added, “We need to do all our best to bring in European values.” ||||| DONETSK, Ukraine — The new Ukrainian government struck the separatists in this eastern province with a major military offensive on Monday, battling them over an important provincial airport in ground fighting that lasted for hours. The rebels were left scattered and shaken, just one day after a successful national election they had tried to disrupt. 
 
 The airport battle was the first time the Ukrainian military had moved so aggressively against the separatists, who took over government buildings in two eastern provinces in March, after weeks of low-grade military maneuvers meant to stop their spread to other areas. 
 
 There was no immediate indication that the Ukrainian military’s operations extended any further than the strategically important airport and surrounding area. Experts said that while the military’s attack might have put the separatists on the defensive, it was unlikely to stop their power. 
 
 As fighting lasted into a rainy evening, the military claimed to have evicted the separatists from the airport, and had cordoned off the area with roadblocks. But the sporadic sounds of weapons fire could still be heard, and it was not clear that government soldiers were in full control. The airport remained closed, and some local news outlets reported that it was burning. 
 
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 “I don’t see this ending anytime soon,” said Oxana Shevel, a political science professor who specializes in Ukraine at Tufts University in Boston. “The Ukrainian government is saying, This is where we draw the line.” Its ability to retake the airport, she said, “doesn’t dramatically change things.” 
 
 Even so, the routing of the rebels from the airport changed the optics of the situation here in favor of the Ukrainian military, which had suffered setbacks for weeks, and had been seen by many Ukrainians as ineffectual. 
 
 Fighter jets screamed and automatic gunfire popped for hours in and around the airport, with ground battles against separatists spilling outside its tall black gate. Thick black smoke dotted the sky and helicopters flew just above the trees, shaking small houses and blowing the grasses in their garden plots. 
 
 The rebel seizure of the airport early Monday suggested a new escalation by the militants who in recent days have appeared to lose the political support of the Kremlin, at least publicly. On Friday, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia suggested that he would respect the results of Sunday’s election, in which Petro O. Poroshenko, a Ukrainian billionaire who knows Mr. Putin, was elected in a landslide. Many here say separatist leaders had grown confident after months of swaggering across the provinces with virtually no pushback from central authorities. 
 
 The fractious groups are not directly under Mr. Putin’s control, and the Kremlin has denied that its military is involved in the conflict here. But support can come in many forms, and it is far from clear that Mr. Putin has any intention of giving up what appears to be a useful geopolitical lever: violence and instability in Ukraine’s east that has left the West flustered. 
 
 Continue reading the main story BELARUS 100 Miles POLAND RUSSIA Kiev Dnieper River Lviv UKRAINE Slovyansk Donetsk MOLDOVA ROMANIA CRIMEA Black Sea 
 
 “What Putin wants is for Ukraine to be weak,” said Lucan A. Way, a political scientist at the University of Toronto who specializes in Ukraine and has lived in Donetsk. “Just because he gives verbal support for the new Ukrainian government does not mean that he will stop trying to foment unrest in the east.” 
 
 By issuing statements of support, Mr. Putin “gets to look like a statesman,” and blame whatever problems emerge on the new government, Professor Way said. “He has created a Frankenstein that he cannot control, and may not even want to,” he said. 
 
 Many in Ukraine had feared that Mr. Putin sought the eastern regions themselves, and was putting troops in position to potentially seize them in the same way he did Crimea, the southern peninsula on the Black Sea that Russia annexed two months ago, setting off a major international confrontation. 
 
 But a subtler maneuver is now emerging, and many experts believe that the most desirable result for Mr. Putin would be for the troubled areas to devolve into breakaway status, similar to South Ossetia within Georgia and Transnistria within Moldova, a possibility that ordinary citizens are already talking about. 
 
 “It’s a mess, it’s anarchy,” said Yevgeny Kaplenko, a retired welder, who stood near his small brick house and yard planted with roses near the airport, as gunfire popped. “This is going to be a second Transnistria. That’s what awaits us.” 
 
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 That outcome would be considered poisonous by many Ukrainians, and would likely have far more serious repercussions for the world, given Ukraine’s enormous size, severe economic problems and geopolitically strategic location in the heart of Europe. 
 
 “Putin doesn’t want to take these regions and foot the bill for all these old industries,” Professor Shevel said. “He would rather there be instability, which makes Ukraine less attractive to Europe and makes it easier to extract concessions from the government.” 
 
 The day’s events started shortly after 3 a.m., when dozens of armed men from the Donetsk People’s Republic showed up at the airport and demanded that all Ukrainian military and security personnel leave, the airport’s press service said. The Ukrainian military later issued an ultimatum for the men to leave and began to attack, shortly after 1 p.m., when they defied the eviction order. A military spokesman said the operation included fighter jets as well as several helicopters, which transported Ukrainian soldiers. 
 
 Pro-Russia militiamen took up positions behind trees close to the entrance, near a Metro supermarket. One of them, shot in the leg, was evacuated in a new Audi, its license plate obscured with tape. Fighters fired a rocket toward the airport, then retreated, under sniper fire, to an area where a friendly resident agreed to drive some of them in his blue car. 
 
 The rebels seemed shaken by the forcefulness of the military response. At the Donetsk government headquarters, nervous separatists briefed journalists. 
 
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 “I am forced to appeal directly to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin for any possible aid,” said Denis Pushilin, the speaker of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. When asked what kind of aid — military or economic — he said, “any.” 
 
 Late Monday night, a Ukrainian military spokesman, Alexei Dmitrashkovsky, said by telephone that the army had established full control over the airport and that several of the militant leaders had requested safe passage, including one known by the nickname, Abver, described as a Russian passport holder. That claim could not be corroborated. 
 
 After midnight, Kalinin Hospital’s deputy head doctor, Andrey Sokoleyvich, said the facility had received five people with shrapnel and bullet wounds. Late Monday evening, a social media account run by the rebels issued a call for doctors to come urgently to several city hospitals. 
 
 At the city’s main trauma hospital, a woman wearing a flak jacket with a medical cross and carrying a holstered pistol said curtly that the wounded, who she claimed numbered fewer than 10, had been taken to other hospitals. 
 
 Earlier, as evening fell, a crowd of rebel sympathizers gathered outside the occupied government headquarters and some demanded that weapons be given to ordinary citizens, reflecting a growing siege mentality. Yaroslav Krakov, 33, said that every time he went to the rebels to demand a gun he was told none were left. 
 
 “We have no one else,” he said. “Russia does not need us, that much is obvious. We are nothing to Kiev anymore. We only have Pushilin and ourselves.” ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Mark Lowen said rebels seemed to be grouping together to seize control 
 
 Russia says it is "open to dialogue" with the new president of Ukraine, as initial results suggested Petro Poroshenko would win its election. 
 
 However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said military action must end against separatists in the east. 
 
 Mr Poroshenko said he would meet Russian leaders soon but vowed to take a tough line on any armed separatists. 
 
 Unrest continues in the east, with pro-Russia militiamen halting flights at Donetsk airport. 
 
 Heavy gunfire is now reported there, with thick black smoke rising from the area. Military aircraft have been seen overhead. 
 
 Meanwhile election observers said Sunday's vote was a genuine one that largely met international standards. 
 
 The mission from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) also said it gave the new president "legitimacy" to open a dialogue with separatists in the east. 
 
 'No Somalia' 
 
 Mr Lavrov told a press conference in Moscow: "We are ready for dialogue with Kiev's representatives, with Petro Poroshenko." 
 
 Mr Lavrov said EU and US mediation were not needed, but warned Kiev that continuing military operations against the separatists would be a "colossal mistake". 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Petro Poroshenko: "Without Russia it would be much less effective or almost impossible to speak about the security in the whole region" 
 
 He said: "As our president [Vladimir Putin] has said, we shall treat the results of the expression of will of the Ukrainian people with respect." 
 
 But Mr Lavrov said Kiev must also treat its people with respect and that dialogue with the east was necessary to resolve the crisis. 
 
 Mr Poroshenko said he hoped to meet Russian leaders early next month, after a trip to Poland where he will meet the US president and EU leaders. 
 
 However, he warned he would take a tough line on armed militiamen. 
 
 He said: "Their goal is to turn Donbass [east Ukraine] into Somalia. I will not let anyone do this to our state and I hope that Russia will support my approach." 
 
 Mr Poroshenko also indicated he would keep current Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, saying: "There are no plans to change the government leadership." 
 
 Mr Poroshenko, 48, currently has 53.75% of the vote, with 70% of the ballots counted, and would not need a run-off. Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is a distant second on 13.1%. 
 
 Full results are expected on Monday. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Flights were halted in Donetsk on security grounds 
 
 The election came three months after pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych fled Kiev amid bloody street protests and calls for closer ties with the EU. 
 
 Since then, Russia has annexed the Crimean peninsula in southern Ukraine and armed separatists in the eastern provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk have declared independence. 
 
 Mr Yanukovych has also said he will accept the election result, "no matter which regions and what percentage of the population voted", Russian media reported. 
 
 Ukraine's interim government is engaged in an offensive in the east to quash the uprising that has left scores dead. 
 
 Pro-Russian separatists severely disrupted voting there. No polling stations were open in Donetsk city, and across the region only seven out of 12 district electoral commissions were operating. 
 
 Media reaction 
 
 "Has Ukraine been reborn?" asks the Ukrainian edition of Komsomolskaya Pravda. It says the election "will have a special place in the history books". But the paper notes that Crimeans did not vote and the voting in Donbass and Luhansk - formerly Ukraine's "electoral core", proceeded with "great difficulty". 
 
 "We have survived," proclaims popular Ukrainian daily Segodnya. 
 
 Claims in the Russian media that Ukraine is overrun by extremists and neo-Nazis are ridiculed by some social media commentators. The two right-wing candidates - Dmytro Yarosh and Oleh Tyahnybok - polled less than 2% in total. 
 
 Prominent Ukrainian journalist Mustafa Nayyem proclaims an "epic fail" of Russian propaganda. "Vladimir Putin won't sleep tonight," he predicts. 
 
 :A turning point, or business as usual? 
 
 However, the central elections commission said about 60% of Ukraine's 35.5 million eligible voters had turned out. 
 
 Unrest continued on Monday. 
 
 Flights were suspended at Sergei Prokofiev airport in Donetsk after several dozen separatists from the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic demanded Ukrainian troops guarding the inner perimeter be removed. 
 
 Officials said there had been "shots and confrontation". 
 
 The head of Donetsk airport's press service, Dmitry Kosinov, said: "On the territory of the airport there are armed people, this is ample reason to halt our work on security grounds." 
 
 Ukrainian TV is also reporting clashes in the villages of Semenivka and Andriyivka near the separatist stronghold of Sloviansk.
– Ukraine has elected a new president, and it's the man they call "The Chocolate King." Petro Poroshenko made billions in the candy industry before becoming a leading figure in Ukrainian politics. Here's what we know: He's distinctly pro-European—at his victory speech he appeared alongside Vitali Klitschko, the former boxing champ who started the street protests that deposed President Viktor Yanukovych, the New York Times points out, and he's vowed to sign the European trade deal Yanukovych spurned. In his victory speech, Poroshenko also said he would push for early parliamentary elections this year, a concession to Yanukovych critics who said that replacing the president wasn't enough. But Moscow doesn't hate the guy; Poroshenko has business interests in Russia, and has served in pro-Russian governments before. Russia's foreign minister says Russia is "ready for dialogue" with Poroshenko, and that Vladimir Putin would respect the election results as the "will of the Ukrainian people," the BBC reports. Yet US Senator Kelly Ayotte, who was in Ukraine to observe the elections, accused Russia of breaking its pledge not to interfere with the vote—separatists in the east largely prevented voting there. "We know this was Russia," Ayotte said, calling for more sanctions. Poroshenko has avoided involvement with Kiev's interim government, but he's no newcomer to politics. "He is very much a figure of Ukraine’s failed past — dysfunctional governments, outsized oligarchs and epic corruption," observes Jackson Diehl at the Washington Post. One Poroshenko voter put it this way: "It's like choosing the best from the worst."