Ukraine’s former president claims he was stopped from leaving country

Ukraine's former president Petro Poroshenko said that he was stopped from exiting the country on Friday morning (Dec 2) which he called as a politically motivated step to disrupt his work schedule.

Poroshenko, who was the president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019 and has now become an opposition lawmaker, shared a video in which he can be seen standing at a border crossing with Poland.

In the video, he said that he had been turned away and showed that he had papers as per which he had official permission to cross the border.

The officials in Ukraine, under martial law, need to get special approval for travelling abroad. Later, Deputy Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament Oleksandr Korniyenko confirmed that he had cancelled the permission of Poroshenko to leave the country.

Korniyenko said that although lawmakers were permitted to travel to attend party political events, he had received a letter because of which he had to cancel the permission granted for Poroshenko's trip.

Also read: Putin signs decree to add 170,000 troops to its armed forces as war with Ukraine takes toll

The dispute over travel permissions comes amid growing tensions between the opposition and government over internal matters like appointments and budget, as the war against Russia continues.

Poroshenko said that he was set to travel to Poland to carry out negotiations to end the blockade of truckers and then to the United States to build support for the war effort of Ukraine's war.

Along with the video, Poroshenko wrote a message in which he accused the administration of President Volodymyr Zelensky of cancelling the permission and playing dirty political tricks ahead of elections.

"This is an anti-Ukrainian diversion. It is not just the hampering of my entire team's diplomatic work, but unfortunately a blow to Ukraine's defence capabilities,” wrote Poroshenko.

Security service says Russia planned plot against Poroshenko

Ukraine's security service on Saturday (Dec 2) said that they had stopped Poroshenko from exiting the country because Russia had planned to exploit Poroshenko's meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to hurt the interests of Ukraine.

Watch: Russia-Ukraine war: Russian forces intensify attack on Ukraine

The political party of Poroshenko, European Solidarity, said that the meetings of the former president were scheduled only in Poland and the SBU security service was warned by the United States against getting involved in politics.

Regarding the meeting with Orban, the SBU said, "Russia planned to use this meeting (like other 'working meetings with ... representative of countries voicing pro-Russian narratives) in psychological operations against Ukraine."

The SBU added that Orban "systematically holds an anti-Ukrainian position", was a "friend of Putin" and wanted the sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine to be removed. 

(With inputs from agencies)