KYIV. Dec 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Yuliya Tymoshenko, leader of the All-Ukrainian Union Batkivschyna (Fatherland) party, and incumbent President Petro Poroshenko will compete in the second round of the 2019 presidential elections, Vadym Karasiov, director of the Institute for Global Strategies, has said. "If we are talking about my forecast, then I think Tymoshenko and Poroshenko will meet in the second round… This year Yuliya Tymoshenko has been wearing the yellow jersey. In this year, the incumbent president and his party machine—the Petro Poroshenko's Bloc—have been trying to catch up with Batkivschyna so that they could level up the chances and get access to the second round," Karasiov told a press conference at the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency on December 21. He said for the time being Poroshenko has failed to secure a place for himself in the second round of the presidential elections, and the chances are high for many politicians to get there, in particular, Civil Position party leader Anatoliy Hrytsenko, Opposition Platform — For Life leader Yuriy Boiko, and actor Volodymyr Zelensky. "On the one hand, Zelensky can be liked as a politician and as a person. I am not talking about his artistic talents; however, you should understand whether he has a team. Every day he has to respond to challenges and not to allow for new ones… If he wins the presidential elections, he will not be able to be a good president, he is not ready for this yet," Karasiov said. In his turn, Kostiantyn Matviyenko, an expert of the Gardarica strategic consulting corporation said that for Ukrainian politics, such lengthy support for the leader of the Batkivschyna party has been unprecedented. "All the previous elections to local self-governance bodies have shown significant support for the Batkivschyna party, and as such for the leader of that party—Yuliya Tymoshenko. It will be fair to say that for the entire 2018 she has been a leader, and this leadership has a trend to grow further," he said. Viktor Nebozhenko, head of the Ukrainian Barometer sociological service, could not say whether Tymoshenko will be able to retain her leadership position in the presidential ratings. "She has been a leader in the presidential race, which has been growing harsher and harsher… At present, it is hard to say whether she will be able to keep up with the pace," he said.