Three years after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, internal political struggles are experiencing a new escalation. The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky adopted, on Thursday, February 13, sanctions against his predecessor and political rival Petro Poroshenko, causing a stormy assignment to the parliament where the allies of the latter took over the gallery.
These sanctions notably prohibit the former head of state (from 2014 to 2019), to leave the country and to have access to its property. It is also forbidden to appear in public programs or to use the Internet. “We defend our country and restore justice: all those who have destroyed the national security of Ukraine and helped Russia must be held responsible,” said Volodymyr Zelensky the previous evening by announcing these measures which also target several other tops managers and businessmen.
Petro Poroshenko has called these sanctions as “politically motivated” and “illegal”, accusing his successor of having “brought a huge blow to the internal unity” of the Ukrainian political elites. During Thursday’s session in Parliament, the allies of Petro Poroshenko stormed the Rada tribune, chanting “Shame!” And forcing the premature end of deliberations in protest, the Ukrainian media reported.
“Accused of high betrayal”
A former actor and humorist, Volodymyr Zelensky won the 2019 presidential election against Petro Poroshenko, obtaining 73.22 % of the votes against 24.45 % in his opponent in the second round. A success that he owes to his promise to end the fighting with the prorussian separatists of the eastern country and to eradicate the omnipresent corruption in Ukraine. Note that this is an essential criterion for integration into the European Union.
And after the victory of Volodymyr Zelensky, more than twenty criminal proceedings were opened against Petro Poroshenko. “He was accused of betrayal, his actions in 19 companies have been seized and his affiliated companies have received fines of several million dollars from the Ukraine Antimonopoly Committee,” said Forbes Ukraine.
Petro Poroshenko, at the head of the European solidarity opposition party who made a fortune in the confectionery, recently went abroad, officially to plead for more support for Ukraine. Already in May 2022, he was “deliberately” blocked on the border twice, in full Russian invasion of the country. Justice prohibited him in January from leaving the country, as part of a coal purchase case to the prorussian separatists in the east of the country. He is also targeted by “corruption” surveys, affairs that his allies denounce as political.
Rebelote in December 2023, when he was refused to leave Ukrainian territory, at the time suspected of having wanted to meet the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, one of the leaders firmly opposed to the membership of Ukraine to Ukraine to Ukraine to Ukraine the European Union. While he was preparing to travel to Poland and the United States to talk about the war experienced by his country, his exit authorization is canceled in extremis.