Poroshenko's lawyers allege fabrication of documents used to justify sanctions against him
Lawyers representing Petro Poroshenko, leader of the European Solidarity party and Member of the Ukrainian Parliament, have submitted evidence to the Supreme Court alleging the falsification of documents that formed the basis for the National Security and Defense Council's (NSDC) decision to impose sanctions against him, according to a statement published on the party's website on Friday.
Poroshenko contends that the documents underpinning the sanctions were falsified after the NSDC had already made its decision. "On February 12, within just three hours, the proposal to sanction me sped through financial monitoring, the Ministry of Economy, the Cabinet of Ministers, the President's Office, the NSDC apparatus, the decision itself, and then returned to issue the decree. The original source was a submission from the State Financial Monitoring Service," Poroshenko stated during the Supreme Court hearing challenging the sanctions.
He noted that the NSDC Secretariat only received the documents on February 13, while the sanctions decision was adopted on February 12. "I have reasonable grounds to believe that NSDC members were either misled or complicit in a crime when they voted for sanctions without having the actual documents... I strongly suspect that the initial vote was on a version that had nothing to do with me. Then, when Zelenskyy left for Khmelnytsky and abroad, the document was rewritten in his absence," Poroshenko claimed.
He also alleged that the State Financial Monitoring Service refused to provide the original submission to the Supreme Court and linked this to the personal stance of the agency's head, Pylyp Pronin. "This may be related to my previous criticism, when Pronin was head of the Poltava Regional Military Administration, regarding the failed construction of fortifications in the Pokrovsk direction," Poroshenko said.
Poroshenko's lawyer, Illia Novikov, stated that the President's and the government's representatives failed to properly comply with the court's order to provide the requested documents. He also questioned the legality of an opinion signed by Ukraine's representative to the European Court of Human Rights, Margarita Sokorenko. "We have reasonable grounds to believe that this document was issued retroactively and was not seen by members of the Cabinet of Ministers or, accordingly, made available to NSDC members," he said.
Another lawyer, Ihor Holovan, stressed that authorities must submit all available documents and materials to the court for use as evidence. "We are dealing with deliberate attempts to conceal evidence from the court," he insisted.
The Supreme Court judge, Mykhailo Smokovych, also addressed the Cabinet's failure to comply with the court's order. "The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine is the highest body in the executive branch. Where is FinMonitoring – on another continent? Why hasn't the government complied with the court's ruling in this case? Over a month has passed since the ruling, and nothing has been done," he said.
As reported, on February 13, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree enacting the NSDC decision of February 12, 2025, "On the Application of Personal Special Economic and Other Restrictive Measures (Sanctions)." The attached list included five individuals: Poroshenko, Ihor Kolomoisky, former Finance and Credit Bank owner Kostiantyn Zhevaho, former PrivatBank co-owner Hennadiy Boholiubov, and former MP Viktor Medvedchuk.
Poroshenko challenged the sanctions in the Supreme Court. The hearings began on April 17, with several Members of Parliament and diplomats from the EU mission and embassies of Germany, Poland, Austria, Sweden, Lithuania, and Denmark in attendance. Poroshenko's representatives argue that the sanctions were unlawfully imposed on a Ukrainian citizen residing in Ukraine – someone considered a "terrorist" only by Russia – thus lacking any legitimate legal grounds under Ukrainian law.
On June 19, Poroshenko stated that Zelenskyy's decree should be annulled due to the government's failure to submit documentation within the legally mandated timeframe. "The court has now been reviewing these illegal sanctions for five months. The law gives the authorities—namely, the President and Cabinet, as the initiators – 15 days to fully present all and any grounds for applying sanctions," Poroshenko said.
He maintains that if there are no legal grounds for the sanctions, then the rationale is purely political.