Lifting illegal sanctions against Poroshenko: Authorities attempt to keep the process secret from the public
The panel of judges of the Cassation Administrative Court within the Supreme Court continues to consider Petro Poroshenko’s claim to overturn the illegal decree imposing sanctions. Government officials are doing everything they can to mislead the court and the public, including attempting to keep the proceedings secret.
“Everything happening now in the Supreme Court is an attempt by the authorities to delay the process. Because the sanctions imposed against the fifth President, Poroshenko, were extrajudicial. And they were based on documents the government wants to label secret. This has nothing to do with law, transparency, or fairness. It’s just a way to make the procedure very secretive. In anticipation of the possible start of negotiations with the European Union on the first cluster of Fundamental Principles, if this continues, it will significantly hinder Ukraine’s European integration,” notes Volodymyr Ariev, a member of parliament from the European Solidarity faction.
“We see how afraid the authorities are of those processes where their criminal actions come to light, and they don’t know how to respond. We would very much like Ukraine to be spoken of as a democratic country, a country governed by the rule of law. Especially in a situation where we are fighting such an authoritarian, anti-European, totalitarian society, which is currently located in the aggressor country,” noted Mykola Velychkovych, a member of parliament from the European Solidarity faction.
Maria Ionova, a member of parliament from the European Solidarity faction, recalled that the European Commission’s report contains clear recommendations on opposition rights, the rule of law, the independence of anti-corruption bodies, and the inadmissibility of persecuting opposition leaders and public figures: “There may be a point of no return.”
“Democracy is transparency, democracy is discussion, democracy is publicity. And when such instructions are given, the country is weakened, and the authorities do this with their own hands,” Ionova notes.
At the previous hearing , before the start of the review of materials classified by the State Investigative Committee (GSK), Petro Poroshenko’s lawyer, Ilya Novikov, commented to journalists on the case documents that had appeared in the media. The published documents prove that there were no factual grounds for imposing sanctions against the fifth President, and that the decision was based on political myths repeatedly spread by sources close to the government.
As became known during the consideration of the case , some of the documents on the basis of which the sanctions were imposed were submitted to the National Security and Defense Council retroactively after the decision was made and the Decree was signed.
Earlier, President Zelenskyy’s representative to the Supreme Court acknowledged that changes were made to the signed decree implementing the National Security and Defense Council’s decision on sanctions against Poroshenko, which she called “technical amendments.”
According to lawyer Ihor Golovan, the Vinnytsia District Administrative Court’s ruling on Petro Poroshenko’s lawsuit against the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) staff and the NSDC Secretary entered into force on July 31. “In particular, it was established that the Decree and its appendix, which was sent for the president’s signature and dated February 12, 2025, contained errors. Specifically, Petro Poroshenko’s identification code contained 11 digits instead of 10. Accordingly, the court established that the President had enacted the Decree.” The court also noted that current Ukrainian legislation does not provide for the possibility of correcting errors or amending regulatory legal acts, including decisions of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine and presidential decrees, outside the established procedure for adopting the relevant act.
President Zelenskyy’s spokesperson also confirmed earlier during the meeting that the National Bank of Ukraine illegally imposed financial restrictions on Petro Poroshenko.