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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has agreed to debate rival candidate Volodymyr Zelensky in a rare stadium event.
The incumbent has also agreed to take a drug and alcohol test on Friday.
A date has not yet been arranged for the televised face-off, which will take place in Kiev’s Olympiyskiy Stadium.
It comes days after Mr Zelensky, a comedian with no political experience, won the most votes in the first round of Ukraine’s presidential elections.
Mr Zelensky has since called for their debate to be moderated by Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine’s former prime minister who polled third in this week’s voting.
President Poroshenko and Mrs Tymoshenko have yet to comment on this new demand.
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Mr Poroshenko had earlier challenged Mr Zelensky to a debate before the first wave of voting.
The challenge was initially accepted but Mr Zelensky later backtracked on his pledge, a move which drew criticism on social media.
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The debate is to be held at Kiev’s 70,000 capacity Olympiyskiy Stadium
Then, on Wednesday, Mr Zelensky threw down the gauntlet in a slick social media video.
“You thought I’d run and hide…. no I’m not you in 2014,” he said, accepting the challenge and giving Mr Poroshenko 24 hours to reply.
The presidential hopeful also demanded the debate be held, in front of all interested broadcasters, at Olympiyskiy Stadium. The venue can hold up to 70,000 people.
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On Thursday, Mr Poroshenko responded with his own, more sombre video, insisting that the stadium event not become a “show”.
“There’s no room for jokes here,” said Mr Poroshenko.
“Being a president and supreme commander is not a game… it means being responsible for the people, for the country.”
Both candidates have agreed to cover the costs of the event, as set out by Ukraine’s civil society watchdog Opora.
A bad miscalculation
By Jonah Fisher, Kiev Correspondent
This has been a bewildering twenty four hours in what has been a surreal election campaign.
The results of the first round, finalised on Thursday morning were astonishingly good for Volodymyr Zelensky.
His unusual strategy of avoiding conventional political campaigning, like debates and rallies, in favour of carefully calibrated social media videos seemed to be working.
Three more weeks of what he’d been doing for the last three months, and the presidency was his. Nothing needed to change.
Then, on Wednesday night, came the debate challenge – a bad miscalculation.
President Poroshenko has nothing to lose and would dearly love to lock horns in a debate with the politically-inexperienced presidential hopeful.
Mr Zelensky’s latest demand – that former Prime Minister Tymoshenko act as arbiter – is also a complete non-starter. She and President Poroshenko have a longstanding rivalry.
It is very strange that a man who has spent his campaign trying to convince people that he’s not just a comedian, now appears to be trying to turn campaigning into a complete farce.
This may well become a disastrous episode on Mr Zelensky’s path to the presidency.