KYIV -- Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has been allowed to leave the country to attend a political party conference in the Netherlands after two previous attempts were blocked, forcing him to appeal to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for permission to make the trip.
Volodymyr Aryev, a lawmaker representing Poroshenko's European Solidarity party, said on May 30 that Poroshenko left the country to take part in a summit of the European People's Party, "the largest assembly of parties in the European Union, of which the European Solidarity is an associate member."
Poroshenko said two days before that he was barred from leaving the country and accused the government of breaking a so-called truce on party politics that has been in place since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.
Poroshenko was in power from 2014 to 2019, and his European Solidarity is the second-biggest party in parliament after Zelenskiy's ruling Servant of the People party.
Poroshenko was elected as the head of a pro-Western government after popular protests in 2014 ousted former pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Zelenskiy defeated Poroshenko in a 2019 election on a campaign to fight corruption and curb the influence of oligarchs.
In January, Poroshenko was charged with treason in a case that he and his supporters reject as politically motivated.
The accusations against Poroshenko, one of Ukraine's richest men, are linked to the alleged sale of coal to help finance Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014-15, when Poroshenko was in office.
The case has caused international concern, with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken appealing to Ukrainians in February to "stick together" as the threat of a Russian invasion loomed.
After Russia invaded, Ukraine's parliament banned several pro-Russian parties, and allowed others to still operate under a tacit deal under which all parties would put aside domestic political disagreements to unite in the face of Russia's war.
