Ukraine prevents former President Poroshenko from leaving the country
Poroshenko at the security conference in February in Munich
Source: picture alliance/ZUMAPRESS.com/Sachelle Babbar
Ukraine has prevented its ex-president Petro Poroshenko from leaving the country. He presumably wanted to meet with Hungary’s Prime Minister Orban. The secret service explained that this would “systematically represent an anti-Ukrainian position”.
UUkrainian border officials 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 MP and Orban, who was criticized by Kiev for his pro-Russian stance.
Orban “systematically represents an anti-Ukrainian position,” said the SBU. Moscow wanted to use the meeting “for its information 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 blockade of the border by Polish truck drivers at meetings in Poland and the USA.
After leaving office, Poroshenko was investigated for treason and corruption. The ex-president suspects that these were commissioned 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.
Russian army has been trying to take Avdiivka for two weeks
According to Ukrainian reports, one person was killed and four other civilians were injured in Russian attacks in eastern Ukraine. A civilian was killed in the shelling of the city of Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said on Saturday. Among the injured were a man and his daughter who had wanted to visit relatives in the border town of Semenivka.
At the same time, the Ukrainian army announced that Russian troops continued to carry out “daily” attacks on Avdiivka. At the same time, the attackers tried to break into a coking plant on the outskirts of the city – the largest in the country. According to the army, the Ukrainian soldiers managed to “repel” all attacks. The Russian army has been trying to take the industrial city of Avdiivka, not far from the Donetsk region, for about two weeks.
The current situation in Ukraine
Source: Infographic WELT
Russian armed forces and pro-Russian separatists have controlled large parts of the Donetsk region since 2014. Donetsk is one of four areas in eastern and southern Ukraine that Moscow declared annexed last year, without having full military control over those areas.
