Blocked import of ambulances and organized smuggling with Hryhorishyn, – ex-mayor of Hlukhiv on Poroshenko

Former mayor of Hlukhiv, Frenchman of Ukrainian origin Michel Tereshchenko has claimed that former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, during his presidency, jointly with Russian oligarch Konstantin Hryhorishyn organized a smuggling network on the territory of Sumy Oblast.

According to Tereshchenko, the Hlukhiv district was located 90 km from the border with Russia, and the more sanctions were imposed against Russia, the more active the smuggling became. The key role in this scheme, he said, was played by former member of parliament Derkach.

“Derkach headed the smuggling at all levels of the oblast. His friend, Russian businessman Konstantin Hryhorishyn, owns Sumyoblenerho. But he was also a business partner of Petro Poroshenko. And together they organized all of this,” said Michel Tereshchenko.

In addition to the smuggling scheme, Tereshchenko accused Poroshenko of blocking the import of ambulances into Ukraine. According to him, the reason was the president’s commercial interest: his company Bohdan was engaged in selling ambulances on the Ukrainian market.

“We could have received a Mercedes ambulance — a gift from the Netherlands. The ambulance arrived at the border and was blocked. Nobody could clear that ambulance through customs. Finally, the deputies voted for Anton Ishak’s initiative, amendments to the law, so that we could clear it through customs and receive the vehicle. But Anton Ishak told me — Michel, I don’t know when we will change this law. We wanted to release 630 ambulances that were parked at Ukraine’s border and could not enter the country. Why? Because there was a company called Bohdan, which was engaged in selling ambulances in Ukraine. Well, that is the president’s sphere, so nobody could change anything,” Tereshchenko said.

Anton Ishak, mentioned in Tereshchenko’s account, was a member of parliament from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc.

Earlier, media reported that Poroshenko and Hryhorishyn were business partners and co-owners of LLC Enterprise “Kyiv,” which leased a plot of land of more than 6.4 hectares near the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. The office of the Energy Standard group, owned by Hryhorishyn, was for a long time located next to Petro Poroshenko’s International Investment Bank.

In 2019, Oleh Hladkovsky (Svynarchuk), who at the time held the position of deputy secretary of the National Security and Defense Council and was considered a key figure in Poroshenko’s inner circle, became embroiled in a corruption scandal known as “Svynarchukgate.” Journalists established that he had organized the smuggling of spare parts and components in Sumy Oblast across the border with Russia.