During the briefing, lawyer Ilya Novikov said that the sanctions against the fifth President, the leader of the European Solidarity party, Petro Poroshenko, are falsified, and all those involved will be criminally responsible. Novikov called the National Security Council to cancel its shameful, unconstitutional decision. The lawyer also informed that in the near future, relevant claims will be submitted to the Supreme Court.
“Two weeks ago, we announced a lawsuit to the Supreme Court against President Zelensky. Since the sanctions were prepared so quickly that they did not have time to read their own text, they made three mistakes there. Instead of reconvening the NSDC meeting and signing a new decree, the text of this decision was changed on President Zelenskyi’s website. Such a change occurred on the president’s and National Security Council’s websites. The lawyer said the change also took place on the website of the “Government Courier” publication.
“Finmonitoring, an organization engaged in financial intelligence, has no right to initiate sanctions. The Minister of Economy, Vice Prime Minister Svyridenko put intense pressure on the ministers to vote. On the same day, it was voted on by the NSDC, and it was signed by Zelensky. We know that Stefanishyna, the Minister of Justice, put pressure on the executors, on those employees of the Cabinet of Ministers and the NSDC staff, whose duty it was to ensure that legally worthless documents were not even considered by the NSDC, not that they were not signed as Zelensky’s decree,” said Ilya Novikov.
“We raise these questions in our lawsuit, which will soon go to the Supreme Court. But the issue is not limited to this; we raise the question of criminal liability for people who forged and changed files on websites that carry out the official publication of laws and decrees of the president,” Novikov emphasizes.
Meanwhile, Ukrainians have collected 100,000 signatures on a petition to cancel the illegal sanctions against Poroshenko. Two hundred public organizations also signed a corresponding appeal to the NSDC.
“After the illegal, anti-democratic actions of the government, the society was outraged. I registered a petition on the official website of the Office of the President. And not only did I do it – active military, veteran, and volunteer, too. As expected, the authorities were scared; they rejected them without any explanation,” said Dinara Gabibullaeva, Head of the NGO “Solidarna Molod.”
“After that, 70,000 live signatures were collected in just three days. According to my information, there are already more than 100,000 of them, they will be officially transferred and registered,” Gabibullayeva said.
People’s deputy Sofya Fedyna notes that the sanctions against Poroshenko stopped large-scale aid to the Armed Forces at the most critical moment. “Zelensky imposed sanctions on aid for the Ukrainian army. Petro Poroshenko, his team, and the Charitable Fund handed over 7 billion hryvnias in aid to the army for three years after a full-scale invasion. This is the largest flow of aid from individual benefactors in the Ukrainian state. When the military has a full paragraph with supplies, because the state has failed, because Zelenskyi has failed, because enterprises are not running, because they are stealing at all levels of government, the military turn to Poroshenko,” said the deputy.
People’s deputy Volodymyr Vyatrovych believes illegal sanctions against Poroshenko undermine Ukraine’s European perspective and help the enemy. “It is regrettable that the direct instruments of this crime are, in particular, those people who are responsible for European integration in the country. I don’t know how Ms. Stefanyshyn, who will represent Ukraine at the first stage of the negotiations, the so-called “Basics,” where democratic principles are discussed, will talk about the fact that democratic rights are respected in Ukraine at a time when she is essentially participating in a crime that undermines democracy in the country,” the deputy noted.
“It is interesting that it was the Russian Federation, based on the submission of the Russian financial monitoring, that accused Petro Poroshenko of terrorism for financing the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And here we see a gruesome mirror image of the Ukrainian authorities, which is trying, breaking the legislation, to bring Poroshenko to justice, to sanctions, in fact, repeating the accusations that are being made by the Russian Federation,” states Vyatrovych.
“The fastest way to correct this situation, without waiting for the court to say its word, is if the NSDC simply cancels its decision on its own initiative. If it were legal, it would be the best option for them. Unfortunately, I don’t really believe that it will be done because the political situation does not look like someone can do it,” summarizes lawyer Ilya Novikov.