The authorities have not been able to explain for a year why they imposed sanctions – Poroshenko

The authorities have not been able to explain to society for a year on what grounds they imposed sanctions against Petro Poroshenko – the fifth president stated this during a break in the meeting of the Board of Judges of the Cassation Chamber of the Supreme Court. As is known, today the court continues to consider Petro Poroshenko’s lawsuit against President Zelenskyy to cancel the illegal Decree on sanctions.

This was reported by the press service of “European Solidarity” .

The stage of providing, analyzing and evaluating evidence has been completed. Today we have come to surprising conclusions. For a year, there has been an illegal, unconstitutional, extrajudicial decree restricting my rights as a citizen, as a people’s deputy, my rights as an opposition leader – and for a year the authorities have not been able to provide a single piece of evidence. The only thing they tried to prove is that the president does not need evidence,” Poroshenko said.

He added that the team delivered the fateful decision of the European Court of Human Rights back in November, which is binding on the government, the Supreme Court, the parliament, and the president.

“He cannot ignore this decision. On January 16, 2026, the decision entered into force and is binding. What is this decision about? All year, the president’s representatives have been emphasizing that the presidential decree is allegedly not subject to control. It is discretionary in nature, that is, he does whatever he wants. The ECHR stated that judicial control is mandatory for all member states of the Council of Europe. No document is protected from judicial control, and the court’s obligation is to exercise this control. The second position is that these decisions cannot be, as they say, discretionary in nature, that is, introduced without any reasons,” the fifth president emphasizes.

He noted that the authorities are obliged to explain what Poroshenko is guilty of.

“Answering the question of why sanctions were imposed, we did not find their answers to this question. The third position is falsification. We have been talking about this all year. The decree that came out of the Cabinet of Ministers is different from the decree that went to the NSDC. It is different from the decree that was submitted for a vote. It is different from the decree that was submitted for the president’s signature. It is different after publication, because my tax number is not there. And then, after publication, they falsified it again, without a new NSDC meeting. This is not a mistake. This is a crime,” Poroshenko believes.

He also noted that against the backdrop of numerous corruption scandals in recent months, the introduction of illegal sanctions, including by those involved in these scandals, looks even more cynical: “imagine, in February morning they held a meeting with Mindich and a two-dollar deriban to Moscow, with suitcases that were very difficult for them to carry, because there were 2 million dollars there. And 3 hours later in the evening they went to a meeting at the Ministry of Economy and introduced sanctions against Poroshenko.”

According to the fifth President, instead of the problems of war and the disaster with critical infrastructure, the authorities are preoccupied with the elections: “the main goal of sanctions is to prevent opponents from participating in the elections. I want to emphasize that elections during martial law are illegal, because they create conditions for manipulation by the authorities. Elections without opposition leaders are illegal, because they do not allow for the free expression of the will of citizens. And this definitely does not coincide with our movement towards the European Union.”

“The first cluster of the negotiation process about our membership writes about the rule of law, writes about freedom, including the freedom of expression of citizens, and writes about democracy. And in general, this is called the Copenhagen criteria. And we need to not bully and demand that we be accepted just like that. We need to work to make Ukraine European, even during the war. Because the only one who passed the exam for Europeanness is the Armed Forces of Ukraine. I really hope that today the Supreme Court of Ukraine will pass this exam,” Poroshenko said.

By the way, the panel of judges of the Cassation Chamber of the Supreme Court continues to consider Petro Poroshenko’s lawsuit against President Zelenskyy to cancel the illegal Decree on sanctions. Today’s session is being held in a room that cannot accommodate participants , listeners of the process, and the media, and representatives of diplomatic missions are forced to sit on window sills.

At previous sessions of the Supreme Court, in particular, evidence of falsification of the decision on sanctions against Poroshenko was examined. Poroshenko’s lawyers showed a film produced by the “1+1” TV channel, where Zelensky directly admitted that the National Security and Defense Council is his weapon and he uses it because it is faster than following the law.

Representatives of the authorities stated in the closed part of the court hearing that the sanctions against Poroshenko were imposed for educational purposes.

Earlier, President Zelensky’s representative in the Supreme Court admitted that changes were made to the signed Decree on the implementation of the NSDC decision on sanctions against Poroshenko, which she called “technical amendments.”

President Zelensky’s representative earlier during the meeting also confirmed that the National Bank of Ukraine had illegally imposed financial restrictions against Petro Poroshenko.

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