Ukraine’s ex-president Petro Poroshenko returns to face treason charges in court

Poroshenko led Ukraine for five years after the 2014 Maidan uprising that toppled the country’s Kremlin-backed leader

He now faces accusations of high treason for coal-trading deals with separatists supported by Russia in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region

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Supporters greet former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko near the Pechersky district court. Photo: Handout via EPA-EFE

Published: 11:00pm, 17 Jan 2022

Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko returned to Kyiv on Monday to fight charges of treason, accusing his successor of crossing a “red line” with allegations that he denies.

The legal stand-off pressed by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration injects a level of political instability in the region as Russia amasses troops on Ukraine’s eastern frontier, a move that’s prompted Western allies to raise the spectre of a full-scale invasion. Russia has repeatedly said it doesn’t plan to invade.

Poroshenko led Ukraine for five years after the 2014 Maidan uprising that toppled the country’s Kremlin-backed leader. He now faces accusations of high treason for coal-trading deals with separatists supported by Russia in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. Still active politically, he leads a party in opposition to Zelensky.

Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko addresses supporters in front of a court building prior to the court session in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photo: AP

Addressing a crowd of supporters outside the airport in the Ukrainian capital upon his arrival, Poroshenko said Zelenskiy’s administration had “crossed the red line” with charges that could send him to prison for up to 15 years if convicted. The former head of state then attended a preliminary court hearing.

It’s a dramatic shift of fortune for Poroshenko, the chocolate-magnate-turned-politician lauded by the US and European Union for his tilt toward the West in the years after President Vladimir Putin’s seizure of Crimea from Ukraine. Poroshenko stood for greater integration with the EU and Nato while Putin broke fully from the West.

But the wealthy tycoon has come under the scope of Zelenskiy’s administration, which has made a concerted effort to curb the political influence of oligarchs and stem corruption that’s become endemic in the former Soviet republic.

Late last year Zelensky took aim at Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, who has vast holdings in the country’s east, as well as its largest private power utility, DTEK. Akhmetov was being dragged into a Russian-backed coup attempt against him, Zelensky claimed, a charge the billionaire strongly rejected.

The manoeuvring has led to unease among western allies that potential political chaos in Kyiv could complicate efforts to secure unity as the country faces a Russian threat.