02/12/2023 7:11 pm (current 02/12/2023 8:14 pm)
Did he want to meet Orban? ©APA/AFP/Archive
Ukrainian border authorities prevented former President Petro Poroshenko from leaving the country because he allegedly wanted to meet with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Poroshenko, head of state from 2014 to 2019, was turned away at the border on Friday, the Ukrainian secret service SBU said on Saturday. The reason was a planned meeting between the opposition deputy and Orban, who was criticized by Kiev for his pro-Russian stance.
Orban “systematically represents an anti-Ukrainian position,” the SBU said. Moscow wanted to take advantage of the meeting “for its informational and psychological operations against Ukraine”. Poroshenko himself did not mention a planned meeting with Orban, but stated that he wanted to discuss, among other things, US military aid and the border blockade by Polish truckers at meetings in Poland and the US.
After leaving office, Poroshenko was investigated for treason and corruption. The former president suspects that these were ordered by his successor and political rival, the current head of state Volodymyr Zelensky. Poroshenko’s European Solidarity party is the second largest party in parliament, after Zelensky’s Servant of the People party.