You're reading: Poroshenko has no commitments to Firtash

The presidential candidate and independent MP Petro Poroshenko is independently financing his election campaign and has no commitments to anybody, except to voters, Poroshenko's press service has said.

According to the press service, some of the negotiations on creation of the
union with UDAR party leader Vitali Klitschko took place in Vienna (Austria),
but weren’t secret. The talks took place in Vienna on March 25, since
Klitschko’s younger brother, Vladimir, was preparing for a boxing match in
Austria on April 25.

“Poroshenko was invited since he is on friendly terms with the famous
brothers,” the report said.

A final decision to unite political forces finally was taken by Klitschko.
This decision doesn’t mean that Poroshenko undertook commitments to a third
person, including businessman Dmytro Firtash, moreover, the latter wasn’t
involved in the talks in Vienna, the press service of the presidential candidate
said.

“Poroshenko is rather a wealthy person, [who is able to] finance his campaign
by himself and undertakes commitments to nobody apart from the voters, and that
what he wishes for other candidates [as well],” the press service said.

According to Poroshenko, the public political statements of Firtash are a
part of efforts to protect himself from the United States justice.

“In new Ukraine everybody will maintain laws and fulfill them, but not buy
the loyalty of the authorities, as happened during [Viktor] Yanukovych’s
[presidency]. I’m not a prosecutor, but as a politician it’s clear that Mr.
Firtash bears a great deal of responsibility for the activities of the previous
regime, which will be impossible to escape,” the press service quotes Poroshenko
as saying.

As reported, on March 29, Vitali Klitschko decided to pull out of the
presidential elections in Ukraine in favor of Petro Poroshenko.