Sensational twists emerged on June 10 in the ongoing drama between former president Poroshenko and the State Bureau of Investigations (DBR), which is the law enforcement body that has opened five criminal cases against him but has yet to bring him to trial. Poroshenko arrived for questioning at the DBR headquarters in the latest criminal case being investigated, in which he is alleged to have issued an illegal order in 2018 to force Yegor Bozhok – the then-head of the Foreign Intelligence Service – “to exceed his powers and state authority” when appointing his first deputy, as reported by the Prosecutor General’s website.

Instead of being questioned, however, state prosecutors attempted to issue Poroshenko with a notice of suspicion in the criminal case – the latest of at least a dozen being investigated – at the DBR headquarters. The prosecutor’s statement said that detaining Poroshenko under bail was under consideration. Accompanied by his advisers, Poroshenko avoided receiving the notice, left the office and immediately visited the office of Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova. When confronting her, she said Poroshenko alleged the law requires her to issue the notice of suspicion in person. The DBR published a politically tinged video the same day attacking the former president’s character and alleging he has ignored 25 summons for questioning.

In response to Poroshenko’s actions, Venediktova, who oversees the DBR, issued a statement accusing the former president and his entourage of illegally forcing their way into her office. In addition, she said she has the legal right to order her subordinates to issue the notice of suspicion to Poroshenko. “That’s why it’s illegal to pressure the prosecutor general to demand a repeat of issuing the suspicion (notice), which practically means a repeat of the procedure that was already performed in [the] presence of [Poroshenko’s] lawyers at the DBR building,” she said in a video statement. The DBR has investigated at least 13 criminal cases against Poroshenko.

The same day of these events, a lawyer for Poroshenko told national television that two criminal cases are being prepared by the Prosecutor General’s Office for “hooliganism committed by the fifth president Poroshenko, with particular cynicism and disrespect for society” during the 2019 presidential campaign. A February 25 incident involved Poroshenko removing the hat of a woman in the crowd (perhaps jokingly), while the February 27 incident involved the president insulting a member of the audience (also perhaps jokingly).

"Issuing notices of suspicions, and then engaging in the next step of opening criminal cases, is a post-Soviet tactic of keeping political opponents under pressure and threat of prosecution," Zenon Zawada, an analyst at the Kyiv based Concorde Capital brokerage, said in research notes. "The mounting notices and cases against Poroshenko indicate that remains a priority for the Zelenskiy administration, in addition to creating the appearance for the public in the mass media that Poroshenko could be prosecuted for his alleged crimes, which would satisfy appetites for revenge among his many critics and detractors."

According to Zawada, this is all a made-for-television show in which a cat is toying with a mouse that it never intends to do any serious damage to.

"We don’t expect any serious prosecution of Poroshenko resulting in a conviction, considering that Zelenskiy is so dependent on the West for his political survival, and Western authorities don’t want to see Poroshenko prosecuted," he added.

"The evidence of that is when Zelenskiy seemed to endorse on May 21 the opening of a criminal case of state treason against Poroshenko, only to back off after seven former US ambassadors to Ukraine jointly signed an open letter dated May 26 warning the Zelenskiy administration against getting entangled in the US presidential campaign," he concluded.