Poroshenko noted that Mazepa "at a crucial moment when it was necessary to choose between loyalty to a foreign monarch or to his fatherland," made a choice in favor of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian leader also compared Mazepa with the first US President George Washington, one of the leaders of the war for independence of the Spanish colonies in America, Simon Bolivar, and the leader of the Indian independence movement Mahatma Gandhi.
“For the empires that their peoples obeyed, they were all exactly called traitors — Washington, Bolivar, Gandhi, and Mazepa. But for their peoples they are heroes, ”he said.
Earlier, Poroshenko said that the Russian and Soviet artist Kazimir Malevich is the representative of the Ukrainian avant-garde.
In October 1708, Mazepa openly joined the enemy of Russia in the Northern War by the Swedish king Charles XII. In response, Peter I eliminated Mazepa's bid and deprived him of all titles.
After the defeat of Charles XII near Poltava, Mazepa fled to the Ottoman Empire and died in the city of Bender.