Petro Poroshenko

Petro Oleksiiovych Poroshenko (born 26 September 1965) is a Ukrainian politician, oligarch, and former bureaucrat who served as the fifth president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. He served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2010, and as the Minister of Trade and Economic Development in 2012. From 2007 until 2012, he headed the Council of Ukraine's National Bank. He was elected president in 2014 in a landslide, avoiding the second round of voting by winning 55 % in the first round. During his presidency, Poroshenko led the country through the first phase of the war in Donbas, recovering most of the Donbas Region from the Russian separatist forces. In September 2014 and February 2015, Poroshenko would sign the Minsk Agreements effectively freezing the frontlines and greatly reducing casualties in the ongoing war. He also began the process of re-building the Ukrainian military which was largely dismantled during Yanukovych's presidency, a re-militarization which would continue under Zelenskyy's presidency. A staunch proponent of Ukraine's EU ascension, Poroshenko began the process of integration with the European Union by signing the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement in June 2014. He also signed a VISA-free travel agreement with the European Union in June 2017, and re-oriented national trade towards the EU. In terms of domestic policy, Poroshenko promoted the Ukrainian language, nationalism, inclusive capitalism, decommunization, and administrative decentralization. In 2018, Poroshenko helped create the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine, separating Ukrainian churches from the Moscow Patriarchate. His presidency was distilled into a three-word slogan, employed by both supporters and opponents: armiia, mova, vira (English: military, language, faith). As a candidate for a second term in 2019, Poroshenko was defeated by Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Poroshenko is a people's deputy of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's unicameral parliament) and leader of the European Solidarity party. Outside government, Poroshenko has been a prominent Ukrainian oligarch with a career in acquiring and building assets. His most recognized brands are Roshen, a large-scale confectionery company which has earned him the nickname of "Chocolate King", and his TV news channel 5 Kanal, which he was forced to sell to comply with anti-oligarch legislation in November 2021. He is considered an oligarch due to the scale of his business holdings in manufacturing, agriculture and finance, his political influence from several stints in government prior to his presidency, and his ownership of an influential mass-media outlet. In opinion polling conducted since he left office, Poroshenko is considered an above average Ukrainian President.