# Petro Poroshenko **Petro Poroshenko** is the confectionery oligarch (Roshen) who served as President of [[Ukraine]] from June 7, 2014 to May 20, 2019, through the first phase of the [[Donbas War (2014-2022)]]. ## Panama Papers On August 21, 2014 — the same day as the Battle of Ilovaisk — Poroshenko registered a British Virgin Islands company, Prime Asset Partners, to handle the promised sale of Roshen. The arrangement was exposed in the [[Panama Papers]] in April 2016. ## Defeat and prosecution Poroshenko lost the 2019 runoff to [[Volodymyr Zelensky]] with 24.5%. He has sat in the Rada since August 2019 and leads European Solidarity. In December 2021 he was charged with treason and financing terrorism over coal purchases from occupied Donbas, alongside pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk. ## Sanctions Zelensky's national security council sanctioned Poroshenko in February 2025 (decree dated February 13). On July 10, 2026 Ukraine's Supreme Court refused to lift the sanctions; his defense said it would appeal. ## RWKB angle Poroshenko complicates both of the simplified frames that circulate in U.S. politics — "Ukraine is clean" and "Ukraine is hopelessly corrupt": a pro-Western oligarch-president, offshore-exposed, now targeted by his successor's government. ## See Also - [[Yulia Tymoshenko]] - [[Volodymyr Zelensky]]