Petro Poroshenko

Petro Poroshenko was born on 26 September 1965, into an ethnic Ukrainian family in Bolhrad, a primarily Bulgarian town in Ukraine's southwestern Odesa Oblast. Poroshenko's father, (1936–2020), was born in the village of Safiany near Izmail, which at the time belonged to Romania, and worked as an engineer and later a government official who managed multiple factories in the Ukrainian SSR. According to Poroshenko, his father's family stemmed from the Danube Cossacks. Little is known about his mother, Yevhenia Serhiyivna Hryhorchuk (1937–2004), but a Ukrainian newspaper said she was an accountant, who taught at a vocational and technical school of accounting. Poroshenko spent his childhood and youth in Tighina (Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, now known as Bender and under de facto control of the unrecognized breakaway state Transnistria), where his father Oleksii was heading a machine building plant In his youth, Poroshenko practiced judo and sambo, and was a Candidate for Master of Sport of the USSR. At this university he was friends with Mikheil Saakashvili, whom he would appoint as Governor of the Odesa Oblast (region) in May 2015, and who is a former president of Georgia. In 1984, Poroshenko married a medical student, Maryna Perevedentseva (born 1962). ==Business career==

In 1993, Poroshenko, together with his father Oleksii and colleagues from the Road Traffic Institute in Kyiv, created the UkrPromInvest Ukrainian Industry and Investment Company, which specialized in the confectionery and automotive industries (as well as in other agricultural processing later on). Poroshenko's business empire also includes several car and bus factories, Kuznia na Rybalskomu shipyard, the 5 Kanal television channel, as well as other businesses in Ukraine. Although not the most prominent in the list of his business holdings, the assets that drew much recent media attention, and often controversy, are the confectionery factory in Lipetsk, Russia, that became controversial due to the Russo-Ukrainian war, the Sevastopol Marine Plant (Sevmorzavod) that has been confiscated after the 2014 Russian forcible annexation of Crimea and the media outlet 5 kanal, particularly because of Poroshenko's repeated refusal to sell an influential media asset following his accession to presidency. According to Poroshenko (and Rothschild Wealth Management & Trust) since becoming President of Ukraine he has relinquished the management of his businesses, ultimately (in January 2016) to a blind trust. Billionaires lists rankings In March 2012, Forbes placed him on the Forbes list of billionaires at 1,153rd place, with US$1 billion. As of May 2015, Poroshenko's net worth was about US$720 million (Bloomberg estimate), losing 25 percent of his wealth because of Russia's ban of Roshen products and the state of the Ukrainian economy. According to the annual ranking of the richest people in Ukraine, published in October 2015 by the Ukrainian journal Novoye Vremya and conducted jointly with Dragon Capital, a leading investment company in Ukraine, president Poroshenko was found to be the only one from the top ten list whose asset value grew since the previous year's ranking. The estimate of his assets was set at US$979 million, a 20% growth, and his ranking increased from 9th to 6th wealthiest person in Ukraine. The article observed that Poroshenko remained one of the only two European leaders who owned a business empire of such scale, with Silvio Berlusconi of Italy being the other. A total of €450 million is kept in an Amsterdam-based company registered in Cyprus, as a result of which his effective tax rate is 5% rather than the statutory tax rate of 18% in Ukraine. The company is probably to be worth much more, as the annual accounts published by the Dutch Chamber of Commerce only contain the book value of the shares, which is very likely to be lower than the market value. After his election, Poroshenko lost the billionaire status as his net worth dropped by 40% to reach $705 million. Following the 2014 elections, Poroshenko sold his stake in Roshen. The Kyiv Post reported that Makar Paseniuk, managing director of Investment Capital Ukraine, was hired by Poroshenko to act as his personal advisor and oversee the sale of the company. Poroshenko has stated that upon beginning his political activity he passed on his holdings to a trust fund.) • Kuznia na Rybalskomu shipyard owned through a trust and along with Ihor Kononenko • Ukrprominvest-Agro, an agrarian holding • Zoria Podillia, an agrarian company near Haisyn, specializing in sugar production from sugar beets • Podillia • MAS-Agro • Ahrofirma "Dniproahrolan" • Ahrofirma "Ivankivtsi" • Sevastopol Shipyard (lost in 2015 due to a corporate raid by the Russian occupational authorities in Crimea) ==Early political career==

Poroshenko first won a seat in the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian Parliament) in 1998 for the 12th single-mandate constituency. He was initially a member of the United Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (SDPU), the party led by Viktor Medvedchuk and loyal to president Leonid Kuchma at the time. In 2001 Poroshenko was instrumental in creating the Party of Regions, also loyal to Kuchma; the Party of Ukraine's Solidarity having merged into the Party of Regions, Poroshenko launched a new party with a similar name, the party "Solidarity". ==Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council==

during the meeting before Mukacheve mayoral election on 16 April 2004 In December 2001, Poroshenko broke ranks with Kuchma supporters to become campaign chief of Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine Bloc opposition faction. After parliamentary elections in March 2002 in which Our Ukraine won the biggest share of the popular vote and Poroshenko won a seat in parliament, Poroshenko served as head of the parliamentary budget committee, where he was accused of "misplacing ₴47 million" (US$8.9 million). As a consequence of Poroshenko's Our Ukraine Bloc membership tax inspectors launched an attack on his business. Poroshenko was probably the wealthiest oligarch among Yushchenko supporters, and was often named as one of the main financial backers of Our Ukraine and the Orange Revolution. After Yushchenko won the presidential elections in 2004, Poroshenko was appointed Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council. In response to the allegations, Yushchenko dismissed his entire cabinet of ministers, including Poroshenko and Tymoshenko. State prosecutors dismissed an abuse of power investigation against Poroshenko the following month, immediately after Yushchenko dismissed Sviatoslav Piskun, General Prosecutor of Ukraine. Piskun claimed that he was sacked because he refused to institute criminal proceedings against Tymoshenko and refused to drop proceedings against Poroshenko. In the March 2006 parliamentary election, Poroshenko was re-elected to the Ukrainian parliament with the support of Our Ukraine electoral bloc. Between 1999 and 2012 he was a board member of the National Bank of Ukraine. ==Foreign Minister and Minister of Trade==

Petro Poroshenko in the Polish Senate with former Greek prime minister George Papandreou, December 2009 Ukrainian President Yushchenko nominated Poroshenko for Foreign Minister on 7 October 2009. Poroshenko was appointed by the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament) on 9 October 2009. On 12 October 2009, President Yushchenko re-appointed Poroshenko to the National Security and Defense Council. Poroshenko supported Ukrainian NATO-membership, and said NATO membership should not be a goal in itself. Although Poroshenko was dismissed as foreign minister on 11 March 2010, President Viktor Yanukovych expressed hope for further cooperation with him. on 9 March 2012, President Yanukovych stated he wanted Poroshenko to work in the government in the post of economic development and trade minister. On 23 March 2012, Poroshenko was appointed economic development and trade minister of Ukraine by Yanukovych. The same month he stepped down as head of the Council of Ukraine's National Bank. Poroshenko claims that he became Minister of Trade and Economic Development to help bring Ukraine closer to the EU and get Yulia Tymoshenko released from prison. After he took the post, tax inspectors launched an attack on his business. ==Return to parliament==

Poroshenko returned to the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) after the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election after winning (with more than 70%) as an independent candidate in single-member district number 12 (first-past-the-post wins a parliamentary seat) located in Vinnytsia Oblast. He did not enter any faction in parliament and became member of the committee on European Integration. In mid-February 2013, Poroshenko hinted he would run for Mayor of Kyiv in the 2013 Kyiv mayoral election. In 2013, the registration certificate of Solidarity was cancelled because it had not participated in any election for more than 10 years. The BBC reported, "Mr Poroshenko owns 5 Kanal TV, the most popular news channel in Ukraine, which showed clear pro-opposition sympathies during the months of political crisis in Kiev." In pre-election polls from March 2014, Poroshenko garnered the most support of all the prospective candidates, with one poll conducted by SOCIS giving him a rating of over 40%. On 29 March he stated that he would run for president; at the same time Vitali Klitschko left the presidential contest, choosing to support Poroshenko's bid. On 2 April, Poroshenko stated, "If I am elected, I will be honest and sell the Roshen Concern." He also said in early April that the level of popular support for the idea of Ukraine's joining NATO was too small to put on the agenda "so as not to ruin the country". He also vowed not to sell his 5 Kanal television channel. On 14 April, Poroshenko publicly endorsed the campaign of Jarosław Gowin's party Poland Together of neighboring Poland in that year's elections to the European Parliament, thanking Gowin's party colleague Paweł Kowal for supporting Ukraine. Poroshenko's election slogan was: "Live in a new way – Poroshenko!". On 29 May, the Central Election Commission of Ukraine announced that Poroshenko had won the 25 May presidential election, with 54.7% of the votes. During his visit in Berlin, Poroshenko stated that Russian separatists in the Donbas "don't represent anybody. We have to restore law and order and sweep the terrorists off the street." He described as "fake" the planned 11 May Donbas status referendums. ==Presidency (2014–2019)==

When it became clear he had won the election on election day evening (on 25 May 2014) Poroshenko announced his "first presidential trip will be to Donbas", where armed pro-Russian rebels had declared the separatist Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republics and control part of the region. Poroshenko also vowed to continue the military operations by the Ukrainian government forces to end the armed insurgency claiming: "The anti-terrorist operation cannot and should not last two or three months. It should and will last hours." He compared the armed pro-Russian rebels to Somali pirates. He also vowed to hold new parliamentary elections in 2014. Inauguration Poroshenko was inaugurated in the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) on 7 June 2014. In his inaugural address he stressed that Ukraine would not give up Crimea and stressed the unity of Ukraine. |thumb|Poroshenko delivers a speech to the Council of Europe parliamentary assembly in Strasbourg, 26 June 2014. The inauguration was attended by about 50 foreign delegations, including US Vice President Joe Biden, President of Poland Bronisław Komorowski, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of Switzerland and the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Didier Burkhalter, President of Germany Joachim Gauck, President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili, Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán, President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy, the OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feldman, China's Minister of Culture Cai Wu and Ambassador of Russia to Ukraine Mikhail Zurabov Former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko was also present. Domestic policy Peace plan for Eastern Ukraine At the time of his inauguration, armed pro-Russian rebels, after disputed referendums, had declared the independence of the separatist Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic and controlled a large part of Donbas, but were largely considered to be illegitimate by the international community. Poroshenko warned that he had a "Plan B" if the initial peace plan was rejected. In his draft constitutional amendments of June 2014 proposed changing the administrative divisions of Ukraine, which should include regions (replacing the current oblasts), districts and "hromadas" (united territorial communities). In these amendments he proposed that "Village, city, district and regional administrations will be able to determine the status of the Russian language and other national minority languages of Ukraine in accordance with the procedure established by the law and within the borders of their administrative and territorial units". He proposed that Ukrainian remained the only state language of Ukraine. Batkivshchyna, a key coalition partner in the Yatseniuk Government, came out against the plan. He repeatedly spoke out against federalization, and did not seek to increase his presidential powers. and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, October 2014 The 1 July 2015 decentralization draft law gave local authorities the right to oversee how their tax revenues are spent. The draft law did not give an autonomous status to Donbas, as demanded by the pro-Russian rebels there, but gave the region partial self-rule for three years. According to him this was necessary "to purify the Rada of the mainstay of [former president] Viktor Yanukovych". These deputies, Poroshenko said, "clearly do not represent the people who elected them". Poroshenko had pressed for the elections since his victory in the May 2014 presidential election. On 27 August 2014, the party congress of All-Ukrainian Party of Peace and Unity adopted a new name: "Petro Poroshenko Bloc" (BPP). In 2015, the Petro Poroshenko Bloc was renamed in "Petro Poroshenko Bloc "Solidarity"". Nuclear weapons On 13 December 2014, Poroshenko stated that he did not want Ukraine to become a nuclear power again. Decommunization and deoligarchization (May 2016) On 15 May 2015, Poroshenko signed a bill into law that started a six-month period for the removal of communist monuments and the mandatory renaming of streets and other public places and settlements with a name related to Communism. According to Poroshenko, "I did what I had to"; adding, "Ukraine as a state has done its job, then historians should work, while the government should take care of the future." The legislation (Poroshenko signed on 15 May 2015) also provides "public recognition to anyone who fought for Ukrainian independence in the 20th century", including the controversial Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) combatants led by Roman Shukhevych and Stepan Bandera. On 23 March 2015, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko accepted the resignation of billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky as governor of Dnipro region over the control of oil companies. "There will be no more oligarchs in Ukraine", Poroshenko said adding that "oligarchs must pay more [taxes] than the middle class and more than small business". The president underscored that "the program of de-oligarchization will be put into life". Poroshenko promised that he will fight against the Ukrainian oligarchs. In December 2018, President Poroshenko confirmed the status of veterans and combatants for independence of Ukraine for the armed units of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). Language In 2016, a new rule came into force requiring Ukraine's radio stations to play a quota of Ukrainian-language songs each day. The law also requires TV and radio broadcasters to ensure 60% of programs such as news and analysis are in Ukrainian. On 25 September 2017, a new law on education was signed by President Poroshenko (draft approved by Rada on 5 September 2017) which says that the Ukrainian language is the language of education at all levels except for one or more subjects that are allowed to be taught in two or more languages, namely English or one of the other official languages of the European Union. The law stipulates a 3-year transitional period to come in full effect. In February 2018, this period was extended until 2023. The law was condemned by PACE that called it "a major impediment to the teaching of national minorities". The law also faced criticism from officials in Hungary, Romania and Russia (Hungarian and Romanian are official languages of the European Union, Russian is not). Ukrainian officials stressed that the new law complies fully with European norms on minority rights. signing the law "On provision of the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the State language" The law does state that "Persons belonging to indigenous peoples of Ukraine are guaranteed the right to study in public facilities of preschool and primary education in the language of instruction of the respective indigenous people, along with the state language of instruction" in separate classes or groups. On 15 May 2019, Poroshenko signed the law "On provision of the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the State language". Religion during the unification council. In order from left to right: Poroshenko, Epiphany, , Filaret (Filaret is wearing a skufia), 15 December 2018. Under Poroshenko the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine was created by the merging of the UOC-KP and the UAOC, and two members of the UOC-MP in a unification council which also elected Epiphanius I as its first primate. The 11 October 2018 announcement by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople that it would, among other things, grant autocephaly to a Ukrainian church is one of the reasons which created the Moscow–Constantinople schism when the Moscow Patriarchate severed full communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate on 15 October 2018. Corruption Corruption in Ukraine is a widespread problem; although there are signs that during Poroshenko presidency it decreased (thanks to the Prozorro procurement system). Poroshenko signed a decree to create the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine to comply with the requirements of the International Monetary Fund. Since 2015, the Bureau has sent 189 cases to court, but no one significant was convicted. The head of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office reportedly coached suspects on how to avoid corruption charges. A November 2018 EU Commission report praised some of Ukraine's reforms during Poroshenko's presidency, such as in healthcare, pensions and public administration. During Poroshenko's 2019 campaign for reelection, a major scandal arose in which business partners of Poroshenko (but not Poroshenko himself) were accused of smuggling Russian components to Ukrainian defense factories at wildly inflated prices. Moreover, Poroshenko stripped of Ukrainian citizenship Mikheil Saakashvili who criticized him for not fighting Ukrainian corruption. On 11 April 2019, the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine was established and Poroshenko signed the decree appointing the judges during an official ceremony. LGBTQ rights In 2015, Poroshenko spoke in defense of a planned gay pride march in Kyiv, calling it "the constitutional right of every citizen of Ukraine"; he said, "As far as the 'March of Equality' is concerned, I view it from both the perspective of a Christian and a pro-European president. I believe these are two completely compatible ideas." and Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko had called for its cancellation, saying it would be divisive at a time of war and risk "[creating] another confrontation in the centre of the capital". Foreign policy meets with President-elect Poroshenko, 5 June 2014. in Washington, D.C., 20 June 2017 United States On 7 December 2015, Poroshenko met with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in Kyiv to discuss Ukrainian-American cooperation. He met U.S. President Donald Trump in June 2017; BBC News falsely accused him of paying Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen between 400,000 and 600,000 dollars to organize this meeting. The BBC ended up having to state the allegation was untrue, apologizing to Poroshenko, deleting the article from its website, paying legal costs, and paying damages to Poroshenko. Russia , French President François Hollande, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk, 11 February 2015 In June 2014, Poroshenko forbade any cooperation with Russia in the military sphere. At the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 26 June 2014 Poroshenko stated that bilateral relations with Russia cannot be normalized unless Russia undoes its unilateral annexation of Crimea and returns its control of Crimea to Ukraine. On Poroshenko's June 2014 Peace plan for Eastern Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov commented, "it looks like an ultimatum." On 26 August 2014, Poroshenko met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Minsk where Putin called on Ukraine not to escalate its offensive. Poroshenko responded by demanding Russia halt its supplying of arms to separatist fighters. He said his country wanted a political compromise and promised the interests of Russian-speaking people in eastern Ukraine would be considered. Borut Pahor in Ljubljana, 8 November 2016 in Istanbul, 3 November 2018 European Union and Joe Biden, 7 February 2015 in Paris, 12 April 2019 The European Union (EU) and Ukraine signed the economic part of the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement on 27 June 2014. Poroshenko stated that the day was "Ukraine's most historic day since independence in 1991", describing it as a "symbol of faith and unbreakable will". The Ukrainian parliament on 23 December 2014 voted 303 to 8 to repeal a 2010 bill that had made Ukraine a non-aligned state in a bill submitted by Poroshenko. On 29 December 2014, Poroshenko vowed to hold a referendum on joining NATO. On 22 September 2015, Poroshenko claimed that "Russia's aggressive actions" proved need for the enlargement of NATO and that the Ukrainian referendum on joining NATO would be held after "every condition for the Ukrainian compliance with NATO membership criteria" was met by "reforming our country". On 2 February 2017, in an interview with Funke Mediengruppe, Poroshenko announced he was planning a referendum on whether Ukraine should join NATO. International Poroshenko was criticized by the Committee to Protect Journalists for signing a decree which banned 41 international journalists and bloggers from entering Ukraine for one year, being labeled as threats to national security. The list includes three journalists from the BBC, and two Spanish journalists currently missing in Syria, all of whom previously covered the Ukraine crisis. In October 2015, Poroshenko visited the Kazakh capital of Astana, during which he told President Nursultan Nazarbayev that his country was Ukraine's "window to Asia" and vice versa. During a visit to Gomel, Belarus in October 2018, he spoke to the Ukrainian community on the situation in Ukraine, saying that he does "not want Russia to use Belarus to get to our flank". 2019 election In the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election, Poroshenko received 24.5% of the second round votes, and was defeated by Volodymyr Zelenskyy. There was no consensus in the expert community on a single reason why Poroshenko lost, although various reasons cited include: • failure to successfully end the war; • failure to stem corruption; • several corruption scandals in which Poroshenko or people closely associated with him were involved (that included an investigation publicized during the election campaign, according to which associates of Poroshenko created a money laundering scheme in Ukroboronprom); • a conflict with Ihor Kolomoyskyi which resulted in an anti-Poroshenko campaign by 1+1 Media Group (one of the largest media conglomerates in Ukraine); • an information campaign supported by Russia against him; • an overall fatigue from Ukrainian political elites; • a presidential campaign that was focused almost exclusively on the right-wing and nationalistic population and exploited the patriotism topic at the expense of debates about social and economic situation; and • lack of understanding and communication with Ukrainian people. ==Post-presidency (2019–present)==

In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Poroshenko was first on the party list of European Solidarity. Police raid at Poroshenko's headquarters and gym On 20 December 2019, Ukrainian law enforcement raided both Poroshenko's party headquarters and gym on the orders of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Hidden cameras and recording devices were found inside the gym's smoke detectors and security alarms. According to the State Investigation Bureau, those were allegedly secretly recording and filming Poroshenko's gym clients, some of which are politicians and businessmen. Poroshenko and Ihor Kononenko, deputy head of Poroshenko's party, are both owners of the gym and could not be reached for comments. The raid was part of two ongoing criminal investigations which are focused on two concerns. First, the alleged theft of servers with classified information. Second, the alleged tax evasion and money laundering. Derkach recordings In May 2020, Andrii Derkach, a former Ukrainian lawmaker who is aligned with a pro-Russian faction and has links to Russian intelligence, released edited fragments of private phone calls from several years between then U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (the then-presumptive Democratic nominee for U.S. president, elected president in 2020) and then-President Poroshenko. Derkach used the clips to make a series of accusations not supported by the tapes. The taped conversations were consistent with official U.S. and European policy at the time and with public statements by Biden and Poroshenko. Anti-oligarch law Two days after the passing of the anti-oligarch law, which seeks to curb the influence of Ukraine's wealthiest individuals, Poroshenko sold the TV channels Priamyi and 5 Kanal. Criminal case On 20 December 2021, Poroshenko was accused of state treason, aiding terrorist organizations and financing terrorism due to allegedly organizing the purchase of coal from separatist-controlled areas of Ukraine together with pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison. Poroshenko denied the allegations, calling them "fabricated, politically motivated, and black PR directed against [Zelenskyy's] political opponents". On 15 January 2022, Poroshenko announced via a video message on Facebook: "I am returning to Ukraine on a flight from Warsaw at 09:10 a.m. on January 17... to defend Ukraine from Russian aggression", despite the case against him. Following his return to Ukraine, the prosecutor's office asked a court to either remand Poroshenko in pre-trial detention for two months, or oblige him to pay bail of ₴1 billion (US$37 million), wear an electronic bracelet, remain in Kyiv, and hand over his passport. The court chose a third option ('personal commitment'), which is less strict than house arrest and doesn't involve paying bail. According to this commitment, Poroshenko has to submit his passport to the authorities, not leave Kyiv or the Kyiv Oblast without first receiving permission from the court or the prosecutors office, and inform the authorities if his place of employment or residence change. Russian invasion of Ukraine On 25 February 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Poroshenko appeared on TV with a Kalashnikov rifle together with the civil defense forces on the streets of Kyiv. He also stated that he believed that "Putin will never conquer Ukraine, no matter how many soldiers he has, how many missiles he has, how many nuclear weapons he has... We Ukrainians are a free people, with a great European future. This is definitely so." On 12 March 2022, on the 17th day of the Russian invasion, Poroshenko personally handed over two civilian pickup trucks labeled "Bandera-Mobiles", in honor of Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera, to members of the 206th Territorial Defense Battalion of Kyiv. Both trucks were retrofitted with Soviet PKM machine guns, 450 bulletproof vests and decals of Bandera's face on the hood of both vehicles. At the end of May 2022, Poroshenko said he was not allowed to leave the country to visit Lithuania. Despite an official travel permit, he was refused entry to the border. Poroshenko wanted to attend the spring session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Vilnius as a member of the Ukrainian delegation. However, he was later allowed to leave Ukraine at the Polish border to attend a political meeting about the war. In July 2023, he criticized Volodymyr Zelenskyy for not getting a NATO entry promise from western leadership, during that year's NATO summit in Vilnius. In December 2023, Poroshenko was again prevented from leaving Ukraine, despite having an official travel permit signed by Verkhovna Rada speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk. In April 2024, Poroshenko announced his intention to participate in the upcoming Ukrainian presidential election. On 4 May 2024, Poroshenko was added to a wanted list by the Russian government on unspecified criminal charges, along with current president Zelenskyy and commander Oleksandr Pavliuk. In October 2024, Poroshenko donated US$1 million worth of FPV drones to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. NSDC sanctions On 12 February 2025, Poroshenko was sanctioned by Zelenskyy through the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine on suspicion of "high treason" and assisting a terrorist organization, which Poroshenko said was "politically motivated". Apart from Poroshenko, four other oligarchs—Ihor Kolomoyskyi, Gennadiy Bogolyubov, Kostyantyn Zhevago and Viktor Medvedchuk—were also sanctioned. The next day, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office announced the opening of criminal investigations against Poroshenko and other sanctioned individuals. Members of European Solidarity blocked the podium of the Verkhovna Rada for two days in protest, and Poroshenko said on 16 February he would go to court against the sanctions. ==Panama and Paradise Papers==

Poroshenko was named in the Paradise Papers. He set up an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands during the peak of the war in Donbas. Leaked documents from the Panama Papers show he registered the company, Prime Asset Partners Ltd, on 21 August 2014. Records in Cyprus show him as the firm's only shareholder. He said that he had done nothing wrong, and the legal firm, Avellum, overseeing the sale of Roshen, his confectionery company, said that "any allegations of tax evasion (were) groundless". The anti-corruption group Transparency International believes that the "creation of businesses while serving as president is a direct violation of the constitution". A similar explanation was given by current President Zelenskyy when he was named in the Pandora Papers. Ukrainian firm Investment Capital Ukraine (ICU), known for their financial partnership with Poroshenko, said their contract with the former President ended in April 2016, at the same time that the Panama Papers leak revealed that Poroshenko had set up an offshore in the British Virgin Islands to manage his companies on the same day as the Battle of Ilovaisk, which turned the tide of the war to Russia’s favor. == Personal life ==

(in blue) with some of the couple's children on Ukraine's 27th Independence day, 24 August 2018 Poroshenko has been married to Maryna Perevedentseva, a cardiologist, since 1984. The couple have four children together: Oleksii (born 1985), twins Yevheniia and Oleksandra (born 2000) and Mykhailo (born 2001). Poroshenko became a grandfather on the day of his presidential inauguration, 7 June 2014. His wife is actively involved in the activities of the Petro Poroshenko Charity Foundation. In high-level meetings he is often seen with a crucifix. Poroshenko is diabetic. ==Cultural and political image==

protesters on 8 December 2013 Poroshenko has been nicknamed the "Chocolate King" because of his ownership of Roshen. yet did not initiate implementation of martial law, for which he was criticized on numerous occasions by politicians and the general public. Poroshenko said it was necessary to realize the consequences of martial law for the country: • It would restrict the supply of weaponry and items of dual assignment; • The IMF does not provide funds to countries that are at war. A month later, the second statement was refuted by a head of the IMF's Ukrainian branch, Jerome Vacher, "As for the possible introduction of martial law, the IMF has no formal legal restrictions that impede continuation of mutual cooperation under such conditions. We have already worked with a number of countries where war conflicts of various intensity unfolded." On 5 February 2015, in his interview with the Spanish El País newspaper, Poroshenko stated that he would introduce martial law in the event of an escalation of the situation in Donbas, but that such a decision would limit democracy and civil liberties, as well as threaten the development of the economy. Martial law in Ukraine was introduced for 30 days in late November 2018, after the Kerch Strait incident. Connections with Dmytro Firtash In April 2015, Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash at a court session about his extradition to the United States stated that at the Ukrainian presidential election he financially supported Poroshenko, and Vitali Klitchko in the Kyiv city mayoral election. The very next day after he became a citizen, on 30 May 2015, Saakashvili was appointed by the president as head (governor) of the Odesa Regional State Administration (see Governor of Odesa Oblast). On 26 July 2017 Poroshenko issued a decree stripping Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship, without providing any reason. According to The Economist, most observers saw Poroshenko's stripping Saakashvili of his citizenship "simply as the sidelining of a political rival" (Saakashvili started a political party Movement of New Forces to participate in upcoming elections). On 30 March 2018, Poroshenko submitted his income declaration. Poroshenko declared that he spent between 1.3 and 1.4 million UAH on this vacation—half what journalists had reported (some details about the president's vacation were classified). • : Grand Cross of the Order of Vytautas the Great • Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople: cross of Panagia Pammakaristos (5 January 2019) • Orthodox Church of Ukraine: Order of St. Andrew Pervozvannyi (Pervozvannyi meaning 'The First-Called') ==Notes==