What did Ukraine's news look like on 2 May 2019?
A look back at the reports that framed the days around 2 May 2019, from the presidential result to a deadly mine blast.
What was Ukraine absorbing on 2 May 2019? Two reports from the preceding days set the backdrop: a decisive election result and a mining disaster in the east.
On 30 April 2019, the Central Election Commission announced the results of the second round of the presidential election. Volodymyr Zelensky won with 73% of the vote. By 2 May 2019, the outcome had been official for two days.
Four days earlier, on 26 April 2019, a large methane explosion at a coal mine in the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine left 17 miners dead.
The two reports were unrelated, and nothing in them links one to the other. Taken together, they show how a single week could hold both a clear democratic verdict in Kyiv-administered Ukraine and a human toll in the east, in territory outside the authority of the Ukrainian government.
Looking back, 2 May 2019 sits between these two moments: after the election result was confirmed and in the aftermath of the mine blast.
