The panel of judges of the Cassation Chamber of the Supreme Court continues to hear Petro Poroshenko’s lawsuit against President Zelenskyy seeking the annulment of the unlawful sanctions decree. Today’s hearing is taking place in a room unable to accommodate all participants, observers, and media, forcing representatives of diplomatic missions to sit on windowsills.
Petro Poroshenko told journalists before the session that such treatment reflects the government’s fear and insecurity and is provocative in nature. “Unfortunately, this does not align with the movement toward Europe or the government’s promises of Ukrainian membership by 2027. Listen to the European Commission, the European Parliament, and national leaders: before joining the EU, Ukraine must meet the Copenhagen criteria. The fundamental position of these criteria is the rule of law, freedom, and democracy,” Poroshenko emphasized.
The previous hearing was postponed to January 30 after President Zelenskyy’s representative failed to appear. Earlier in the proceedings, it was revealed that some documents used as the basis for the sanctions were submitted to the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) retroactively, after the decision had already been made and the Decree signed.
Poroshenko’s lawyers have added documents to the case files proving that the wording in publications about Poroshenko on resources linked to [Andriy] Portnov is identical to that in a corresponding petition (which failed to gather the required votes) and the justification for the sanctions in President Zelenskyy’s Decree.
Furthermore, the court included a European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling dated October 16, 2025, in the case materials. In this ruling, the ECHR recognizes that sanctioned individuals in Ukraine lack sufficient opportunity to defend their rights and adequate procedural guarantees against arbitrariness during judicial reviews of sanction decisions.
In previous Supreme Court sessions, evidence of the falsification of the sanctions decision against Poroshenko was examined. Poroshenko’s lawyers presented a film produced by the “1+1” TV channel, in which Zelenskyy explicitly admitted that the NSDC is his “weapon” and that he uses it because it is faster than following the law.
During the closed portion of the court session, government representatives stated that the sanctions against Poroshenko were introduced for “educational purposes.”
Earlier, President Zelenskyy’s representative in the Supreme Court admitted that changes, which she described as “technical corrections,” were made to the signed Decree implementing the NSDC’s decision on sanctions against Poroshenko.
During a previous hearing, the President’s representative also confirmed that the National Bank of Ukraine had unlawfully imposed financial restrictions on Petro Poroshenko.