Poroshenko could have stopped Russia back in Crimea, but he was a greedy businessman — he traded with the Russian Federation and courted Putin — Stetskiv

Russian aggression could have been stopped as early as in Crimea if the Ukrainian authorities, led by Poroshenko, had immediately fought back against Putin in 2014–15. However, instead of doing so, the politician decided to curry favor with the Kremlin and trade with the Russian Federation through Viktor Medvedchuk. This was stated by former member of parliament and ally of the fifth president Taras Stetsків, reports UNN.

"Poroshenko’s main, fundamental, and greatest mistake was that, having become president of Ukraine, he did not accept the challenge of war that Putin threw down to Ukraine. He was a greedy businessman. And he did not think in the country’s interests," Stetsків said.

According to him, instead of openly fighting back against Russia, Poroshenko tried to curry favor with Putin.

"Petro Oleksiyovych thought he could reach an under-the-table agreement with him through Medvedchuk. Like: shake hands, embrace. We all heard that, right?" the former lawmaker said.

Stetsків believes that after the Russian army’s attack, the Ukrainian authorities should have imposed martial law and carried out partial or full mobilization. In his view, if such a decision had first been made by acting president Oleksandr Turchynov and then by Poroshenko, Russian aggression could have been stopped as early as in Crimea.

"There would have been neither Donbas nor, all the more so, a full-scale invasion. If Putin had been hit hard and immediately, nothing would have happened; he would have backed down. It would have gotten stuck somewhere in the middle of Crimea, in the area of the Ai-Petri Pass or somewhere else," Stetsків said.

He also rejected the claim that the Minsk agreements gave Ukraine time to prepare for a major war. 

"The Maidan’s revolutionary potential was incompetently squandered. Poroshenko finished it off by agreeing to the first Minsk agreements, and then to the second Minsk agreements. And as a result, we got a slow-moving process that did not stop the war for us, but merely gave Putin the opportunity to prepare for a full-scale invasion, because he believed that he would take Ukraine with his "bare hands." He proceeded from the way we, as the authorities, behaved in 2014, 2015, and 2016, and thought that it would be the same in 2022," Stetsків said

The former lawmaker also stated that trade with the occupied territories continued during Poroshenko’s presidency, and that he himself, together with Medvedchuk, established control over the oil pipelines. At the same time, Poroshenko’s enterprises continued operating in Russia.

Stetsків called the main difference between Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelenskyy the decisions they made after the start of the Russian invasion. In February 2022, Zelenskyy decided to remain in Ukraine and resist. "Poroshenko did not make such a decision. That is the difference," Stetsків concluded.