Pro-Russian politician Andrii Portnov coordinated "coal case" involving alleged treason by Ukraine's former president Poroshenko

Ukrainska Pravda has reported that Andrii Portnov, a lawyer and court fixer with close ties to the fugitive former president Viktor Yanukovych, had been coordinating investigators since December 2021 with respect to the so-called "coal case" in which Ukraine’s fifth president, Petro Poroshenko, was accused of treason. Portnov was shot dead on the morning of 21 May outside an American school in Madrid.

Source: Ukrainska Pravda article Without trial or investigation. What was Andrii Portnov doing on the eve of his murder?

Details: The case was formally investigated by the State Bureau of Investigations, headed by Oleksii Sukhachov. However, Ukrainska Pravda has information that it was Portnov who coordinated the investigators' actions from the moment the case was activated at the end of 2021.

Under the scheme, which was first exposed by Ukrainska Pravda in 2016, coal from occupied mines in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts was supplied to Ukraine instead of being bought from South Africa. The scheme was allegedly started by Petro Poroshenko and Viktor Medvedchuk, a former Ukrainian businessman and pro-Russian politician who is also known for his connections to Vladimir Putin.

After years of stagnation with only a semblance of investigative action, the investigation suddenly intensified immediately after the National Security and Defence Council approved sanctions against several political figures, including Poroshenko.

One of Ukrainska Pravda’s sources familiar with the case explained: "Portnov had been seeking personal revenge for years. His main target had always been Poroshenko – a political antagonist of his and a man who did not keep his promise to him. The ‘coal case’ was his personal project."

Quote from the article: "It was the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv – a key link in Portnov's vertical structure – that limited the time the defence had to study the case materials, which Poroshenko's lawyer Illia Novikov said was a way of exerting pressure."

Details: The court that will hear the case has not yet been determined, but Ukrainska Pravda’s sources say that control over its progress remains in the hands of the same power structure that Portnov formed within the judiciary.

Poroshenko's team also says Portnov was the main initiator and overseer of most of the cases involving Ukraine's fifth president.

Previously:

• Ukrainska Pravda reported that Andrii Portnov visited Ukraine a few days before his murder in Madrid and met with Oleh Tatarov, Deputy Head of the President's Office, and Oleksii Sukhachov, Director of the State Bureau of Investigation.

Background:

• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced in an evening address on 12 February 2025 that the National Security and Defence Council (NSDC) would impose new sanctions but did not name any names.
• Sources close to Ukraine's fifth president and current MP, Petro Poroshenko of the European Solidarity party, and the NSDC told Ukrainska Pravda that Poroshenko was among those targeted by the sanctions.
• Poroshenko called the sanctions against him "a colossal blow to internal unity".
• On 13 February, Zelenskyy approved the NSDC's decision to impose the sanctions.
• In May, Ukrainska Pravda learned that the investigation against Poroshenko in the "coal case" had been completed and that he had been charged with treason. The court that will hear the case has yet to be determined.

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