Chernihiv Mayor Not Allowed To Go To Poland To Sign Agreement On Assistance To City

The mayor of Chernihiv, Vladyslav Atroshenko, has announced that he was forbidden to leave for Poland to conclude an agreement on assistance to Chernihiv. He attributes this to a political attack on him by one of the staff of the President's Office. Atroshenko wrote about this on his Facebook page.

"Just at the border I was not allowed into Poland, where I was going to sign an agreement of partnership and assistance to Chernihiv. I clearly associate such actions with political games of officials which harm Chernihiv and discredit the President," Atroshenko said.

According to Atroshenko, he was heading to Polish Rzeszow as part of a delegation of four people. In addition to the partnership agreement, he was scheduled to speak at the session. But the mayor of Chernihiv was not allowed to cross the border at the Krakovets customs checkpoint. Allegedly, the documents were not in order.

"I note: questions about the documents arose only in relation to me, although I had in my hands a full package of documents allowing me to cross the border for official purposes. Like every member of our delegation. However, customs inspector Lilia Turko, token LV-1155, seized my documents without explanation and invited me to talk to my superiors," Atroshenko said.

He stated that such a situation demonstrates the existence of a "telephone law" at the border and discredits the President.

"I associate what happened with a political attack on me by one of the staff of the President's Office. Because of this, they have already tried to ban me from a business trip to Davos. I believe that this is nothing more than the tyranny of responsible officials who thus want to assert themselves and at the same time exceed their official powers. Thus, they impede my professional activities in favor of Chernihiv, and most importantly, discredit the President with such actions, demonstrating signs of telephone law at the border," Vladyslav Atroshenko emphasized.

The mayor of Chernihiv published documents testifying to his disagreement with such a decision and his intention to appeal it in court.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the adviser to the head of the President's Office Oleksii Arestovych said that the restriction on leaving Ukraine for men could be weakened.

On May 28, former president Petro Poroshenko was not released from Ukraine to a meeting of the parliamentary assembly of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. On the same day, Poroshenko returned his passports to travel abroad, which he had previously handed over to the Migration Service.

On June 6, the media reported that Poroshenko remains abroad and was seen walking around London, although he was supposed to return to Ukraine.

Later, Poroshenko did not explain to the Verkhovna Rada why he returned from Europe a week later than the business trip allowed.