Reports: Ukraine ex-president tries to leave country, guards stop him

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Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has tried to leave his country for the second time through the same border checkpoint, according to Ukrainian media reports on Saturday.    

On Friday, Telegram channels in Ukraine reported that Poroshenko was trying to enter Poland through the Rava-Rus'ka checkpoint in the Lviv region.    

Ukrainian news website Strana.ua, citing sources, said that the Ukrainian president was stopped on Saturday by patrol officers at the checkpoint while crossing into the oncoming lane to bypass the line.

A Ukrainian lawmaker from Poroshenko's European Solidarity party, Iryna Herashchenko, said that as a member of a parliament, he is expected to take part in several international events, but he attempted to leave Ukraine, and the Ukrainian border guards stopped him.

Who is Poroshenko?

On May 28, Ukraine's former president, one of the country's richest men, said he was barred from leaving the country and accused Ukraine's government of breaking a so-called political cease-fire in place since the war that started on February 24.

Poroshenko was in power between 2014 and 2019 and was elected as the head of a pro-Western government after former President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted by western-backed a coup in 2014.

Poroshenko was crushed by Zelinsky and was charged in January with treason in a case that he rejects as politically motivated.

The accusations against him are associated with an alleged sale of coal, while he was in office, to help finance separatists in the Donbass region.

Not allowed to cross the border of Ukraine

After the war in Ukraine started, the parliament banned several pro-Russian parties and permitted others to still work under a tacit deal under which all parties would put aside domestic political conflicts.

On May 28, Poroshenko's office stated he "was refused to cross the border of Ukraine," accusing the government of breaching the agreement.

Poroshenko was expected to travel to Lithuania to attend a NATO parliamentary assembly meeting as part of the Ukrainian delegation and had received official permission to go.

He was then to go to Rotterdam in the Netherlands for a summit gathering European political parties.