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Ex-President Poroshenko Defiant Ahead Of Return To Ukraine To Face Treason Charges

January 16, 2022

Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will return to Ukraine on January 17 to fight treason charges he says are a politically motivated attack by allies of current President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Poroshenko, who has been out of the country since December, spoke on January 16 at a news conference in Warsaw, a day before he plans to fly from the Polish capital to Kyiv.

The 56-year-old former president, who is now a lawmaker and the leader of the opposition European Solidarity party, is under investigation for alleged treason linked to the sale of coal that helped finance Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014-15 while he was in office.

Poroshenko and his party deny the charges and accuse Zelenskiy of political persecution at a time the country needs national unity to face Russian aggression.

"I return to Ukraine to fight for Ukraine, not to fight with Zelenskiy," Poroshenko told reporters in Warsaw.

"I think this is a very irresponsible action of the current leadership to disintegrate the country and ruin the unity," he said.

Poroshenko, one of Ukraine's richest businessmen, said he didn't believe he would be arrested upon arrival in Kyiv.

On January 6, a court in Kyiv froze Poroshenko's property as part of a formal investigation into alleged high treason. Last month, prosecutors asked a Ukrainian court to arrest Poroshenko with the possibility of bail set at 1 billion hryvnia ($37 million).

Poroshenko was elected as head of a pro-Western government after the 2014 popular protests ousted Russia-backed former President Viktor Yanukovich. Russia illegally annexed Crimea and began supporting separatist fighters in a war in eastern Ukraine that broke out the same year.

Zelenskiy crushed Poroshenko in the 2019 election on a campaign to fight corruption and curb the influence of oligarchs.

The allegations against Poroshenko have caused domestic and international concern that Zelenskiy and his allies are settling scores.

It comes as Russia has built up troops along the Ukraine border, prompting concerns that Russian President Vladimir Putin might be planning to attack Ukraine.

"At this time more than ever it seems to me that all political leaders in Ukraine need to show unity, avoiding actions that may polarize," Melinda Simmons, the British ambassador to Ukraine, said in a tweet on January 15.

Based on reporting by AP, Reuters, and RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service.

Source: httpshttps://www.rferl.org/a/poroshenko- ukraine-treason-/31657338.html

Copyright (c) 2022. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.