Ukraine's Poroshenko launches bid for second term as president

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's pro-Western President Petro Poroshenko launched his bid for a second five-year term in front of thousands of supporters on Tuesday, ahead of a tight election race in March.

A 53-year-old confectionary magnate and one of Ukraine's richest men, Poroshenko has steered the country on a pro-Western and pro-NATO course since coming to power in the aftermath of the 2014 Maidan protests and Russia's annexation of Crimea.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk and Natalia Zinets; writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Andrew Heavens)