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Kremlin not keeping track of Poroshenko’s return to Ukraine

Dmitry Peskov noted that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s political opponents are having a hard time in Ukraine

MOSCOW, January 17./TASS/. The Kremlin is not monitoring the events around the return of former President Pyotr Poroshenko to Ukraine, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Monday

"No, we are not keeping track of this," he insisted.

Poroshenko has now turned out to be among the political foes of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. "He is in the opposition. But this does not serve as any reason for us to closely monitor this [situation]," Peskov emphasized.

"Generally, Zelensky’s political opponents are having a hard time in Ukraine. This is obvious. We are witnessing this," Peskov concluded.

Poroshenko arrived in the Ukrainian capital from Warsaw on Monday morning. He told reporters before leaving Poland that he was not afraid of being arrested in his native country. Kiev’s Pechersky District Court is scheduled to hold a hearing on Monday to weigh an appeal for his arrest. The court confiscated the former president’s property on January 6. Poroshenko confirmed that he planned to attend the court hearing but expressed confidence that he would not be arrested because there were no legal reasons for that. However, in his words, if he is eventually arrested, it will harm incumbent President Vladimir Zelensky most of all.

The former president is a defendant in the case of Donbass coal supplies in 2014-2015. The case was opened based on the Ukrainian Criminal Code’s articles covering the financing of terrorism, high treason and the creation of a terrorist organization. If found guilty, Poroshenko may face up to 15 years in prison with or without the confiscation of his property. In December 2021, investigators tried to serve him with a subpoena, but the ex-president shrugged them off and flew to Turkey on the same day. Sources in his party said that their leader had departed "for a pre-planned diplomatic trip of Turkey and Poland".