Ukraine's former President Poroshenko blocked from leaving the country

After a hearing in Kyiv (Ukraine), on January 19, 2022, Petro Poroshenko (pictured), the former Ukrainian President, sings the national song. He is accused of high treason for financing pro-Russian separatists within eastern Ukraine.

The former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was unable to leave Ukraine in order to attend a NATO meeting in Lithuania, according his party's parliamentary faction.

According to the statement, Poroshenko was stopped twice at the border crossing with Poland as he was traveling to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly meeting, which is a consultative interparliamentary organization.

Ukrainian media reported that Poroshenko couldn't cross the border because of "technical difficulties" with his permit to leave the country.

His European Solidarity parliamentary faction stated that Poroshenko had all the necessary permissions to leave Ukraine and was included in the official delegation of Parliament of Ukraine.

Poroshenko was scheduled to attend a series of high-level meetings at Vilnius with the President Gitanas Nauseda of Lithuania. It was also announced that Poroshenko was scheduled to attend a meeting in Rotterdam of the European People's Party.

Poroshenko was granted a court ruling in January that allowed him to remain free while he was being investigated for treason. He claims the probe was politically motivated and linked to his successor, President Volodymyr Zeleskiy.

Poroshenko is under investigation for illegal coal sales to the east in 2014.-15. Read more

Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic. Editing by Kirsten Dovan

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