Former President Petro Poroshenko called for Ukraine’s entire cabinet to resign on Monday, in a social media post condemning the government’s response to revelations of large-scale corruption in Ukraine’s energy sector.
Poroshenko served as Ukraine’s president from 2014-19. He is now a lawmaker in Ukraine’s parliament and leader of the opposition European Solidarity party.
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“To the smell of war smoke, which has become familiar to Ukrainians over the years of full-scale war, has been added the heavy stench of rotten green mold,” he wrote on X and other platforms on Monday morning.
Poroshenko, whose own financial conduct has previously come under scrutiny, has long been critical of of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
However, Monday also saw Kira Rudik, leader of the liberal opposition Holos party, suggest for the first time that an election may be necessary.
“Since day one of Russia’s full-scale invasion, we’ve stood firmly behind our Constitution. But with corruption scandals piling up, it’s clear: this government must be changed,” she wrote on X.
“There is no trust that this coalition can appoint people who will not be stealing any more,” she added, in an interview with France’s BFMTV.
Ukraine’s constitution allows regular elections to be suspended during wartime.
Among other allegations, Poroshenko accused the government of failing to bring one of the alleged architects of the corruption scheme, Timur Mindrich, to justice – despite extensive personal sanctions against Mindrich, who was once Zelensky’s business partner.
Address by the President of Ukraine to the Participants of the European Council Meeting
The former president also alleged that an attempt by the government this summer to limit the powers of anti-corruption agencies National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) – which was scrapped after public protests – was part of a plan to “suppress” the revelations which rocked Zelensky’s government last week.
“This entire corrupt collective Cabinet of Mindichs must resign in full,” Poroshenko said. Two ministers, Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko and Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk, resigned in the immediate aftermath of the scandal.
Poroshenko’s European Solidarity party amplified the post by sharing it on Telegram.
Last week’s revelations have coincided with sharp temperature drops across the country, as Russia continues to target energy infrastructure in a bid to inflict maximum damage on Ukrainian lives and morale.
The wartime government has faced discontent before, notably when thousands turned out in Kyiv to protest the law that would have undermined NABU and SAPO. But, for many in Ukraine, this latest scandal is a tough pill to swallow.
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