Ukrainian security services said on Saturday that former President Petro Poroshenko would not be allowed to travel abroad. The reason given is an alleged meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and the risk of “instrumentalization by the Russians”.
Published on: 02/12/2023 – 10:08 p.m
3 mins
The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said on Saturday, December 2, that former President Petro Poroshenko, a rival of current leader Volodymyr Zelensky, was not allowed to travel abroad because he wanted to meet with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban risked being “exploited by the Russians”.
Petro Poroshenko – who led Ukraine from 2014 to 2019 and is now an opposition lawmaker – claimed on Friday he was blocked at the border as he was due to travel abroad for “dozens of meetings in Poland and the United States”.
However, he assured that he had received permission to leave Ukraine, with foreign trips by Ukrainian officials having to be confirmed by authorities under martial law in force since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022.
In a statement released on Saturday, the security services said they had received “information about the preparation of provocations” by the Russians with the aim of “reducing support from foreign partners” and “dividing Ukrainian society.” According to them, Moscow intended to take advantage of a meeting between Petro Poroshenko and Viktor Orban, who was accused of being “anti-Ukrainian.”
The former head of state and head of the European Solidarity party was not allowed to leave Ukraine because he could have been “exploited by the Russian secret services”.
In response to the SBU statement, Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs wrote on “Reports like this and these political purges are a new indication that Ukraine is not yet ready to join the European Union,” he added.
In response to the statement released by the Security Service of Ukraine @ServiceSsu Website:
Hungary does not want to play a role in the presidency @ZelenskyyUaThe internal political struggles. News reports like this and these political purges are another indication that…— Zoltan Kovacs (@zoltanspox) December 2, 2023
“Anti-Ukrainian sabotage”
On Friday, Viktor Orban said the EU should offer Ukraine a “strategic partnership agreement” instead of starting accession negotiations with the war-torn country.
Petro Poroshenko, who maintained terrible relations with Russia during his presidency, made no mention of a planned meeting with the Hungarian prime minister.
The ex-president said he had to talk about American military aid and the blockade of the border by Polish truck drivers.
Petro Poroshenko believed that the ban on leaving the territory constituted “anti-Ukrainian sabotage.”
In Ukraine he has been accused of treason and corruption, cases that his allies denounce as being political in nature.
Petro Poroshenko was slightly defeated by Volodymyr Zelensky in the 2019 presidential election.
He had already stated in May 2022 that he had been briefly detained at the border while attending the NATO parliamentary meeting in Lithuania before he was finally able to leave.
With AFP