With opinion polls strongly favoring Kolomoisky’s protégé, Volodymyr Zelensky, the mood was somber among the standing room only crowd of several hundred business leaders at Kyiv’s InterContinental Hotel.

With opinion polls strongly favoring Kolomoisky’s protégé, Volodymyr Zelensky, the mood was somber among the standing room only crowd of several hundred business leaders at Kyiv’s InterContinental Hotel. Anna Derevyanko, executive director of the European Business Association, praised the president as “a fighter” and gave him an embrace. Lenna Koszarny, chair of the American Chamber, said: “People are worried. Business is worried.” Recalling a meeting last month with chamber representatives where Zelensky showed up in a black T-shirt and gave vague answers, she said: “Nobody knows a thing – we are all trying to find out what will happen, how it will happen…When I hear the hryvnia exchange rate, not at 30, but 40, 50 — I feel terrible.”