Poroshenko speaks to press before Malta, Strasbourg visit

President Petro Poroshenko held a press conference on Sunday, May 15. He touted his achievements in bringing Ukraine and Europe closer together with the upcoming introduction of visa-free travel in the Shengen zone and the just-concluded Eurovision Song Contest as proof. “Only crazy people can consider Ukraine to be part of the so-called ‘Russian world’. Ukraine is a part of a united Europe stretching from Lisbon to Kharkiv,” he said.

Poroshenko also fielded questions from reporters, many of which centered on law and order. Topics ranged from the murder of journalist Pavlo Sheremet in July 2016, to progress on curbing corruption, to alleged government interference in the activity of civil society. In particular, the president told journalists that Ihor Ustymenko, who has been a Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) officer and was at the scene of the murder several times before the car bomb was detonated, would be questioned on Monday, May 15.

President Poroshenko leaves for a visit to Malta on May 16-17, and will be in Strasbourg for a working visit on May 17 for the signing of the legislation introducing the visa-free regime for Ukrainian citizens.

James Hydzik: President Poroshenko has had a mixed month thus far, as the visa-free regime and a well-executed Eurovision are not the only issues he had to face on Sunday night. We expect the Sheremet murder in particular to weigh on the administration for some time to come, and it is likely that further developments in the case will come from outside investigators of the SBU given the SBU’s slow progress in other high profile cases. Unless there is a startling revelation, we do not expect the case to turn into a mass call for the president’s removal as there was after Georgiy Gongadze’s assassination in 2000.