Shortly after landing in Kiev, Petro Poroshenko vowed to journalists the unity of his country.

"We must unite to show that Ukraine is strong and able to resist Putin's aggression," the former Ukrainian president said Monday at Kiev's Sikorskyi airport.

But with his return, weeks in which the main focus was on the threat from Russia, Ukrainian domestic politics is back in focus - with an issue that divides the country.

Poroshenko, President from 2014 to 2019, today leader of the opposition and head of the party "European Solidarity", is threatened with arrest for high treason.

After a month abroad, he returned for a hearing in a Kiev district court on Monday.

Sofia Dreisbach

Editor in Politics.

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The Prosecutor General's Office accuses Poroshenko of "committed high treason in cooperation with representatives of the Russian leadership and encouraged the activities of terrorist organizations by illegally buying coal".

Specifically, it is about hard coal deliveries to Ukrainian state companies from mines in occupied eastern Ukraine in 2014 and 2015, where Russian and pro-Russian fighters have effectively expropriated large parts of heavy industry since 2014.

The former president is now threatened with detention or house arrest;

the bail had been set at the equivalent of around $32 million.

If found guilty, the fifty-six-year-old could face up to fifteen years in prison.

"Zelenskyj pursues Poroshenko" 

But the former president still has many supporters in Ukraine. Hundreds were waiting at the airport when he returned, waving the yellow and blue flag of Ukraine and holding up signs with slogans like: "Zelenskyj pursues Poroshenko" or "Fight against Putin instead of a powder keg". The former president left Ukraine on December 18 after investigators tried to hand him a subpoena the day before. Poroshenko, who speaks of a planned stay abroad, describes the allegations against him as politically motivated and personally ordered by President Volodymyr Zelenskyj. In an interview with Ukrainska Pravda on his flight home, Poroshenko said,on that day in December he was only in a hurry on his way to the next appointment and did not yet know anything about the allegations against him.

Despite the sworn unity, Poroshenko did not hold back in his tone towards his successor. Selenskyj was "an inadequate person" and "dangerous for the country," Poroshenko said in the conversation. He is making demands on the law enforcement authorities, having the opposition prosecuted and making decisions that are destroying democracy in the country. Selenskyj started in 2019 as a newcomer to politics with a promise to take action against corruption, oligarchism and nepotism, and since then has repeatedly tangled with Poroshenko. He accuses him of still pretending to be president.

During his tenure, Poroshenko failed to take action against corruption, including in his own team. But Zelenskyj is also under increasing pressure to follow words with deeds. His popularity ratings are falling, which is why critics rate the action taken against Poroshenko, against whom more than 25 investigations have been opened, as hasty and thoroughly politically motivated.

In June, the European Parliament also emphasized in a statement that court proceedings should be “based solely on facts” and not used as a “means of political debate”.

Trust in politicians is also low in Ukraine itself, and Zelensky's promises have so far failed to change that.

In any case, Poroshenko's wife Marina was convinced on Monday in the courtroom in Kiev: "I'm very worried because I don't trust our courts," she said in front of the camera.

Some observers are of the opinion that Zelenskyy now wants to get rid of his political competitor, while his partners are looking to Russia with concern.

But there has also been much criticism of opening this case at a time when Ukraine needs to show unity in the face of the Moscow threat.