Court grants Poroshenko's motion to request grounds for imposing sanctions against him

The Cassation Administrative Court of the Supreme Court granted the motion of the MP of Ukraine, leader of the European Solidarity party Petro Poroshenko, to request evidence from the President's Office that was the basis for imposing sanctions against him, the political force said on its website on Tuesday.

"The next court session will be held on June 19. The court granted the motion of the plaintiff's party and obliged representatives of the President's Office and the Government to provide all necessary documents regarding the grounds for imposing sanctions, the procedure for adopting this decision, and public officials who were directly involved in this process," the political force said.

Poroshenko said that with the imposition of sanctions on him, a precedent was established for the first time in the legal history of Ukraine, when the authorities are trying to defend the position that they can impose sanctions against anyone. "A citizen of Ukraine who has Ukrainian citizenship, who lives in a controlled territory, can be deprived of everything with a stroke of a pen – the right to participate in elections, the right to vote, the right to have accounts, the right to use their property, be discredited in accordance with the instructions of the President's Office to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to send a decree on sanctions to worldwide," he said following the court session.

According to the MP, the authorities are trying to delay the court proceedings, "to drag in into the summer, and then see how the situation unfolds."

"We have irrefutable evidence of the falsification of the sanctions decree – both at the stage of developing the draft decree, and then the next wave of falsifications occurred after the decree was signed and issued. They changed the versions four times, which is absolutely illegal. If you made a mistake – annul it, convene a new meeting of the National Security and Defense Council and adopt a new decision," Poroshenko said.

The politician also said representatives of 11 diplomatic missions, as well as representatives of foreign media outlets, were present at the court session.

According to Suspilne, representatives of the President's Office, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine arrived at the session, while representatives of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) and the Minister of Economy did not arrive.

The lawyer of businessman Ihor Kolomoisky stated her desire to join the case on the plaintiff's side, in the status of a third party and represent her client. She filed a motion, relying on the fact that the results of this case may violate his constitutional rights. The court refused to grant her request.

The next hearing is scheduled for 14:00 on June 19.

As reported, on February 13, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree on the NSDC decision On the application of personal special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions), of February 12, 2025. According to the annex to the document, sanctions were imposed against five individuals: Poroshenko, Kolomoisky, former owner of the bank "Finance and Credit" Kostiantyn Zhevaho, former co-owner of PrivatBank Hennadiy Boholiubov, and former MP Viktor Medvedchuk.

Poroshenko appealed the sanctions to the Supreme Court of Ukraine. On April 17, the court started considering the claim in the presence of Ukrainian MPs, as well as diplomats from the European Union mission, representatives of the embassies of Germany, Poland, Austria, Sweden, Lithuania and Denmark.

Poroshenko's representatives said the sanctions were imposed illegally, as they were imposed on a Ukrainian citizen who is in Ukraine, despite the fact that only Russia considers him a "terrorist." Therefore, there are no grounds under the law for sanctions.

In addition, the representatives said, the reasons for the application of sanctions are still unknown, since the announced data on the alleged "withdrawal of billions abroad" have never been made public. Moreover, the State Financial Monitoring Service, which was referred to when imposing sanctions, actually refused to confirm such facts, and the head of its legal department stated that this body had no right to provide anyone, including the government, with any financial information.

The Committee on Supervision and Regulation of Banking Activities of the National Bank of Ukraine on April 28 recognized Poroshenko's business reputation, as the owner of 64.98292% of the shares of the International Investment Bank, as not impeccable due to the application of sanctions to him by the NSDC. Poroshenko called this decision illegal and stated that he would "record all violations of laws for the sake of politically motivated persecution."