Ukraine has announced sanctions on former president Petro Poroshenko and four other oligarchs and political figures accused of undermining national security, including a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy approved a decision by his National Security and Defence Council to impose the sanctions, said a decree published on Thursday, a day after US President Donald Trump stunned Kyiv and Europe by calling Putin and announcing US-Russia talks to end the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.
A senior Ukrainian official close to Zelenskyy told the FT the move was related to future elections, suggesting the president was moving against political opponents.
As well as Poroshenko, the sanctions target Viktor Medvedchuk, a Ukrainian political operative and close ally of Putin; Ukrainian oligarchs and former co-owners of PrivatBank Igor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Bogolyubov; and Ukrainian businessman Kostyantyn Zhevago.
The move rankled Ukraine’s political elites and sparked condemnation by allies of Poroshenko. The EPP, the largest grouping in the European parliament — to which Poroshenko’s party belongs — reacted with outrage.
Manfred Weber, EPP president, said: “The accusations of high treason against Ukraine’s fifth president — who has stood firm against the Russian aggression since 2014, strengthened the Ukrainian Armed Forces, secured the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, and contributed to consolidating Ukrainian national identity — are baseless and appear to be solely politically motivated.”
The EPP, which also counts European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as a member, called on Zelenskyy to reconsider. Two high-ranking western diplomats in Kyiv said they were stunned.
“How will this help Ukraine right now?” one diplomat said.
Poroshenko travelled to Washington last week to meet Trump officials and US lawmakers but could now be barred from leaving Ukraine under the sanctions.
Ukraine, which has been under martial law since Moscow’s all-out invasion three years ago, has suspended elections during the war.
Trump and his special envoy for the conflict, Keith Kellogg, have signalled they would like Ukraine to hold elections this year, an extremely difficult task with millions of Ukrainians displaced or under occupation in areas controlled by Russia.
Ukrainian officials have in recent weeks begun asking counterparts in EU countries for technical assistance and advice on conducting elections, said people briefed on the discussions. They have sought lessons from other recent elections in Europe in how to tackle and prevent Russian disinformation.
The sanctions allow Ukraine’s government to freeze assets owned and controlled by the sanctioned men and ban those in Ukraine from leaving the country.
Medvedchuk, a staunch Putin ally, was sent to Russia in a prisoner exchange in 2022 and lives in Moscow. Kolomoisky is in jail in Kyiv on charges of fraud and money laundering, while his former business partner Bogolyubov has fled the country.
Zhevago is in the EU and has fought extradition to Ukraine, where he also faces corruption allegations. But Poroshenko, who has frequently travelled outside Ukraine, remains in Kyiv. All the men have denied the charges against them.
Zelenskyy announced the sanctions on Wednesday, without naming Poroshenko.
“We are defending our state and restoring justice,” Zelenskyy said. “Everyone who has undermined Ukraine’s national security and assisted Russia must be held accountable.”
The sanctions against Poroshenko appear to stem from cases investigated by Ukraine’s security service and state bureau of investigation involving the alleged sale of coal from Russian-occupied eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, which authorities say Poroshenko initiated during his presidency, with help from Medvedchuk.
The pair have denied the claims but Zelenskyy has alleged that their dealings cost Ukraine billions of dollars.
“The billions that were effectively earned by selling out Ukraine, its interests and its security must be frozen and used to protect Ukraine and its people,” the president said in justifying the sanctions.
Poroshenko, who served as Ukraine’s fifth president from 2014 to 2019 and now leads the largest opposition group in parliament, said in a video statement on Wednesday night that the sanctions were “an unconstitutional, politically motivated decision”. He accused Zelenskyy of undermining national unity at a crucial moment.
In response to the sanctions, MPs from Poroshenko’s party in parliament gathered around the speaker’s rostrum and blocked proceedings, holding up posters reading “No to political repression”, “No to dictatorship” and “Think about victory, not about elections”.
Zelenskyy and Poroshenko have had an adversarial relationship since they ran against each other in Ukraine’s 2019 presidential vote.
During the campaign, Zelenskyy positioned himself as the opposite of Poroshenko, accusing him of corruption and failing to bring peace to eastern Ukraine after five years of war against Russia and its separatist proxies. Poroshenko painted Zelenskyy as naive, inexperienced and even pro-Russian, citing his past business interests in Moscow while managing his entertainment company.
Zelenskyy trounced Poroshenko in the election, winning 73 per cent compared with his predecessor’s 24 per cent. The two briefly set aside their differences at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, but any semblance of a truce was shattered by the sanctions announcement.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko, who has also faced off with Zelenskyy in a struggle for power over Ukraine’s capital, said: “When a political struggle within the country is added to the fight against an external enemy, democracy loses. And the country as a whole.”
Additional reporting by Henry Foy in Munich and Andy Bounds