Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was on his way to a NATO event in Vilnius, but he was detained by customs officers while trying to cross the border. This was announced on Friday, May 27, by the deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Irina Gerashchenko.
“Tonight, Poroshenko was not allowed to cross the border. Without explaining the reasons, ”she wrote on Facebook (belongs to the Meta organization, recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation).
According to Gerashchenko, the ex-head of state was supposed to take part in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. It was assumed that in Vilnius he would also hold several meetings with the leadership of Lithuania, deputies of the parliaments of the countries that are allies of the alliance and the European Parliament.
In order to join the Ukrainian delegation, Poroshenko received a business trip order signed by the chairman of the Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk. The border guards, in turn, considered the document to be fake or expired, and did not release the ex-leader of the country from Ukraine.
Earlier that day, information spread on social networks that Poroshenko tried to leave Ukraine and enter Poland through the Lviv customs.
On May 25, it became known that a number of witnesses in the case against former President Petro Poroshenko did not appear to testify.
Prior to that, on May 23, Viktor Medvedchuk, who was detained by the SBU, testified against the ex-president of the country. Employees of the department clarified that evidence was provided in favor of the fact that Poroshenko initiated the illegal privatization of the Samara-Western Direction pipeline. Medvedchuk also confirmed the involvement of the former head of Ukraine in the coal trade with the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR).
In January, the office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine appealed against the decision of the Kyiv Pechersk Court, which chose a preventive measure in the form of a personal obligation in the case of treason against the former president of the country, Petro Poroshenko. At the same time, the supervisory authority insisted on a measure of restraint in the form of detention or bail in the amount of $35.7 million.
Petro Poroshenko is on trial for possible involvement in high treason. We are talking about the investigation against the former Ukrainian leader of the case on the supply of coal from the territories of Donbass. The investigation believes that Poroshenko disrupted the contracted deliveries of coal from South Africa in the fall of 2014. Instead, coal was purchased in the Donbass.
In December 2021, the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) tried to hand him a suspicion, but the politician disappeared and left Ukraine. At the same time, already on January 17, Poroshenko returned from Poland to Kyiv.