The “coal affair” is a farce, especially cynical against the backdrop of the current energy disaster in the country – Petro Poroshenko

The so-called coal business, which the authorities have stepped up after the start of a full-scale invasion, is a cynical farce, especially against the backdrop of the current energy disaster in the state.

Petro Poroshenko stated this during a meeting of the Shevchenko Court.

“What is happening in this hall today is an attempt by the prosecution to turn the trial into a farce. The accusations regarding the import of coal sound especially cynical today. Then, in the most difficult days, thanks to the actions of the government, which I support, we managed to avoid the cold. Coal – Ukrainian, from Ukrainian mines – was imported. The state survived,” Poroshenko emphasized.

He noted that if the prosecution had intended to prove the case in a legal context, it would not have allowed Medvedchuk to be handed over to the Russian side. “Then a simple question arises: why was this done? The answer is obvious – to deprive the process of the opportunity to establish the truth and instead use it for political discrediting,” the fifth President said.

Poroshenko also criticized the prosecution’s demand not to broadcast the hearing live, allegedly for security reasons. “I don’t need such protection or such care,” he stressed.

According to him, the situation looks absurd when the prosecution informs Russia about the dates and address of the court sessions and at the same time speaks about security concerns. “On the one hand, they inform the aggressor country about the time and place of the trial, invite Medvedchuk to the trial, who is deliberately not singled out in a separate proceeding. And on the other hand, they demand to ban live broadcast. So what are you afraid of? For a year you have not provided anything. No facts. No logic. No elements of the crime,” Poroshenko said.

He stressed that an independent judiciary is a key feature of a democratic state and a requirement of the European Union. “Any attempt to close the process is an attempt to hide the crime that is being committed by the prosecution right now. Stop this farce. Don’t turn this into a show,” the fifth President said.

As previously reported, A year ago, lawyer Ilya Novikov said that the authorities plan to remove the opposition leader from the political process due to the intensification of the coal case . He also pointed to the introduction of illegal and unconstitutional sanctions as a tool to block the political activities of the leader of European Solidarity. Petro Poroshenko is appealing the relevant decree in the Supreme Court.

People’s Deputy Viktoriya Syumar stated that after 2019, the authorities resumed the purchase of Russian coal, including from the occupied territories.

Also in December 2019, after negotiations in Paris, Zelensky’s team extended the agreement for the transit of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline, which did not stop even after the full-scale invasion. According to representatives of European Solidarity, the aggressor state receives about $7 billion from this every year.

As a reminder , the faction registered draft laws to stop the transit of Russian oil , however, according to party representatives, they will not be submitted to a vote in the Verkhovna Rada.