Poroshenko claims Zelensky’s office requested parliament votes in exchange for avoiding sanctions
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Former President and current lawmaker Petro Poroshenko on Feb. 17 accused the Presidential Office of offering to support his faction's involvement in drafting legislation on the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) in exchange for avoiding sanctions.
President Volodymyr Zelensky approved a National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) decision on Feb. 13 to impose indefinite sanctions on several high-profile figures, including Poroshenko. The ex-president denounced the sanctions as unconstitutional and politically motivated.
Poroshenko's faction has opposed a recent bill to purchase two Russian-made reactors from Bulgaria for the KNPP, a move Zelensky called critical for Ukraine's energy independence.
"I was offered that if the faction voted for the bill on the KNPP, I would not have any problems with sanctions," Poroshenko claimed in an interview with Ukrainian Pravda.
Some lawmakers have criticized the deal, calling the reactors outdated and costly. Parliament has faced repeated delays in passing the law, leading Bulgaria to extend the deal's deadline to March.
"I was attacked because we demanded and are now demanding the withdrawal of mandates from the Opposition Platform for Life party and because we demand an end to Russian oil transit through Ukraine," Poroshenko said.
Although Zelensky banned all pro-Kremlin political projects, including the Opposition Platform, in March 2022, the party's dissolved parliamentary faction left individual lawmakers with their mandates.
Poroshenko also accused Zelensky of overstepping his authority with the sanctions and criticized Ukraine's 2022 anti-oligarch law, which defines oligarchs as individuals with significant media influence, political involvement, and assets exceeding Hr 2.27 billion ($54 million).
"Zelensky dreamed maniacally of sanctions," he said, adding that only a strong response from the Venice Commission had halted the law's adoption.
On Feb. 14, Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office announced criminal proceedings against individuals on the NSDC sanctions list for "serious and especially serious crimes."
Poroshenko was charged with high treason in 2021 for allegedly conspiring with Russian-backed separatists in a coal supply scheme between November 2014 and January 2015, which reportedly generated Hr 3 billion ($72 million) in profits.
He has dismissed the charges and sanctions as politically driven.
