Petro Poroshenko

• 1. The Boy From Bolhrad

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  Petro Oleksiiovych Poroshenko was born on the 26th of September 1965 in Bolhrad, a town in southwestern Ukraine with a majority Bulgarian population. His father worked as an engineer and later managed multiple factories within the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The family moved to Tighina, now known as Bender, where his father headed a machine building plant. Young Petro learned Romanian while living under de facto control of the unrecognized breakaway state Transnistria. He practiced judo and sambo during his youth and earned the title Candidate for Master of Sport of the USSR. Despite good grades, he received a C for behavior on his report card after fighting four Soviet Army cadets at a military commissariat. This incident led to his conscription into army service in the distant Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic.

• 2. The Chocolate King Rises

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  In 1989, Poroshenko graduated from Kyiv University with a degree in economics from the international relations and law department. While still a student, he founded a legal advisory firm mediating foreign trade contracts. By 1991, he began supplying cocoa beans directly to the Soviet chocolate industry. In 1993, he created UkrPromInvest together with his father and colleagues from the Road Traffic Institute. The company specialized in confectionery and automotive industries before expanding into agricultural processing. Between 1996 and 1998, UkrPromInvest acquired several state-owned confectionery enterprises. These were combined into the Roshen group in 1996, creating the largest confectionery manufacturing operation in Ukraine. His business success earned him the nickname Chocolate King. The empire also included car factories, the Kuznia na Rybalskomu shipyard, and the 5 Kanal television channel.

• 3. From Boardroom To Parliament

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  Poroshenko first won a seat in the Verkhovna Rada in 1998 for the 12th single-mandate constituency. He initially joined the United Social Democratic Party of Ukraine but left in 2000 to create an independent faction. In December 2001, he became campaign chief for Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine Bloc opposition faction. After parliamentary elections in March 2002, Poroshenko served as head of the parliamentary budget committee. Tax inspectors launched an attack on his business following his membership in the bloc. Despite these difficulties, UkrPromInvest survived until Yushchenko became President in 2005. Poroshenko was appointed Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council after Yushchenko won the presidential elections in 2004. Highly publicized mutual allegations of corruption erupted between him and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in September 2005 involving state firm privatizations. State prosecutors dismissed an abuse of power investigation against him shortly after Yushchenko dismissed the General Prosecutor.

• 4. The War And The Peace Plan

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  On the 7th of June 2014, Poroshenko was inaugurated in the Verkhovna Rada where he stressed that Ukraine would not give up Crimea. His first presidential trip went directly to Donbas, where armed pro-Russian rebels had declared separatist republics. He vowed to continue military operations claiming the anti-terrorist operation should last hours rather than months. In mid-June 2014, he started amending Ukraine's constitution to achieve administrative decentralization. On the 25th of August 2014, he called a snap election to purify parliament of former president Viktor Yanukovych supporters. The peace plan envisioned a ceasefire with separatists named terrorists by Poroshenko himself. He warned that he had a Plan B if the initial peace plan was rejected. By July 2015, a decentralization draft law gave local authorities the right to oversee how their tax revenues were spent. This did not grant autonomous status to Donbas but provided partial self-rule for three years.

• 5. Language Faith And Reform

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  In May 2015, Poroshenko signed a bill into law starting a six-month period for removing communist monuments and renaming streets. The legislation also provided public recognition to anyone who fought for Ukrainian independence in the 20th century including controversial combatants led by Roman Shukhevych. A new rule came into force in 2016 requiring radio stations to play a quota of Ukrainian-language songs each day. On the 25th of September 2017, he signed a new law on education making Ukrainian the language of instruction at all levels except specific subjects. In December 2018, he helped create the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine by merging existing churches. This move separated Ukrainian churches from the Moscow Patriarchate and created the Moscow-Constantinople schism. His presidency promoted inclusive capitalism alongside decommunization and administrative decentralization. The slogan armiia mova vira distilled his domestic policy into military language and faith.

• 6. Defeat And The Return To Arms

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  Poroshenko received 24.5% of the second round votes in the 2019 presidential election before being defeated by Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Police raided both his party headquarters and gym on the 20th of December 2019 under orders from President Zelenskyy. Hidden cameras were found inside smoke detectors allegedly recording clients including politicians and businessmen. On the 20th of December 2021, Poroshenko was accused of state treason due to organizing coal purchases from separatist-controlled areas. A court seized his property on the 6th of January 2022 while he announced his return to defend Ukraine from Russian aggression. On the 25th of February 2022, he appeared on TV with a Kalashnikov rifle during the streets of Kyiv. He personally handed over two civilian pickup trucks labeled Bandera-Mobiles to members of the 206th Territorial Defense Battalion. In April 2024, he announced his intention to participate in the upcoming Ukrainian presidential election despite being added to a wanted list by the Russian government.