Kyiv has released a video in which Vladimir Putin’s best ally in Ukraine accuses former President Petro Poroshenko of serious crimes, a move that suggests the political struggle has returned to Kyiv three months after the Russian invasion.
In a recording released by Ukraine’s main security service, imprisoned pro-Russian MP Viktor Medvedchuk said the former president, now Ukraine’s opposition leader, had asked him to seek Putin’s help in securing illegal energy supplies.
Kyiv’s decision to make its accusations public is the first sign that the long-standing feud between Poroshenko and President Vladimir Zelensky, set aside when Russia invaded in February, has resumed.
The allegations partly coincide with allegations made last year against Poroshenko, who was president from 2014 to 2019, accusing him of treason and financial terrorism by buying coal from Moscow-backed separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass border region.
In the video, Medvedchuk, a pro-Russian lawmaker who considers the Russian president the godfather of one of his daughters, also said Poroshenko had asked for his help in buying an oil pipeline from Russia.
Poroshenko dismissed the allegations as part of a “politically motivated” power struggle with Zelensky.
Asked in an interview with the Financial Times this month whether he accused Zelensky of not preparing the Ukrainian army enough for war, Poroshenko said he would not criticize his successor in the name of national unity.
“The unity of the country is a key asset that we have and thus surprise Putin. [ . . . ] I hate this idea! Now to attack Zelensky, “Poroshenko said.
But he added: “As soon as we end the war, I am absolutely open to it.
Poroshenko’s lawyer, Igor Golovan, told local media that Medvedchuk’s allegations were “PR” and had “nothing to do with the truth or the law.”
Poroshenko’s political party said on Monday that Medvedchuk was trying to “save his own skin from responsibility for his anti-Ukrainian activities”. Medvedchuk was ready to “say everything for everyone”, he said, adding that prosecuting the case during the war was “harmful”.
The video was Medvedchuk’s first appearance since Ukrainian forces arrested him in mid-April while trying to flee the country while under house arrest on charges of treason.
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Shortly after his arrest, Ukraine’s security services released a video calling for Medvedchuk to be replaced by Russian forces and civilians still trapped in the key southeastern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, where about 120,000 people were under siege by Russian forces. .
The proposal met with a lukewarm reception in Russia, which has since made little noticeable effort to save Medvedchuk.
Leonid Slutsky, Russia’s top lawmaker and negotiator in peace talks with Ukraine, said on Saturday that “people in power in Moscow” would consider replacing Medvedchuk with Ukrainian fighters who surrendered last week after a clash at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol. .
But Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov questioned the idea on Monday, telling reporters: “Medvedchuk is a citizen of Ukraine; “He has nothing to do with Russia and is not a soldier,” Interfax reported.
“These are soldiers and members of nationalist groups, so they are completely different categories of people [to Medvedchuk] and we can hardly talk about an exchange, “Peskov said.
The fate of Azovstal’s fighters, who have been ordered to surrender as part of what Ukraine calls a “rescue operation”, remains just as unclear as officials offer mixed messages.
The leader of a Russian-backed separatist group said on Monday that Azovstal’s captives would be brought before a military tribunal, where they could face the death penalty.
Almost immediately afterwards, a senior Russian foreign ministry official said they could be exchanged for Russian prisoners of war.
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