Ukraine blocks ex-leader Poroshenko from meeting Hungary’s pro-Russia PM Orban
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Mr Poroshenko videoed his efforts to leave Ukraine (left), for a trip which Kyiv says was a visit to pro-Russian Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban.
SCREENSHOT, PHOTO: X, AFP
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KYIV - Ukrainian border guards prevented former president Petro Poroshenko from leaving the country on Dec 1 because he planned to meet Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Kyiv’s security services said.
Mr Poroshenko, in power from 2014 to 2019, had planned a number of high-level meetings abroad but said on Dec 1 his trip had to be cancelled because he was turned away at the border.
In a statement on Dec 2, Ukraine’s SBU security services said the former leader was turned back due to his planned meeting with Mr Orban, an EU leader chided by Kyiv for his pro-Russian stance.
The SBU said Mr Orban “systematically expresses an anti-Ukrainian position” and alleged Moscow planned to use the meeting “in its information and psychological operations against Ukraine.”
In response to the SBU statement, Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs wrote on X that Hungary “does not wish to play any part in President Zelensky’s internal political struggles”.
“News reports such as this and these political purges are yet another indication that Ukraine is not yet ready for European Union membership,” he added.
On Friday, Mr Orban said the EU should propose a “strategic partnership agreement” with Ukraine, instead of starting membership talks with the war-torn country.
Mr Poroshenko had been blocked from leaving the country before, including in May last year when he planned to travel to a Nato parliamentary assembly meeting in Lithuania.
After leaving office, Mr Poroshenko was investigated under treason and corruption charges that he argued were orchestrated by his successor and political rival, current President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The two locked horns in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential elections and Mr Poroshenko’s European Solidarity party is the second biggest party in parliament, after Mr Zelensky’s. AFP
