This article remembers Poroshenko's past promises and analyzes whether the Ukrainian president kept true to his words.
Roshen
Poroshenko is known as the owner of Roshen, the large-scale confectionary company from where he gained the nickname "Chocolate King." During the 2014 Presidential election, Poroshenko promised to "get rid" of his private assets and sell Roshen if elected.
"If I'm elected as a President of Ukraine, I would play fair and sell Roshen. As President I want to and will care only about the well-being of Ukraine," the oligarch said.
He did end up getting elected as the president, but as the time went on Poroshenko seemed not too eager to get rid of his candy business. A year after the election, when asked about his promise, Poroshenko claimed he couldn't sell Roshen because nobody wanted to buy his company.
Moreover, the recently leaked Panama Papers showed Poroshenko had moved his company's assets to the British Virgin Islands two months after the 2014 election, thus hiding his company's profits and evading taxes while serving as the president, which goes in a direct violation of the Ukrainian constitution. Amusingly, the latest news about Poroshenko's offshore deeds came out while his government was campaigning against offshore companies.
Military Operation in Eastern Ukraine
Another of Poroshenko's promises was to immediately end the military operation in Donbass. A day after being elected president, Poroshenko said he'd end the war in Eastern Ukraine in a week.
"I will sign a decree on ceasefire for one week. Those who won't lay down their arms during this period would be destroyed," Poroshenko said, certain that the Ukrainian Army would crush the forces of self-proclaimed Donbass republics in less than a week.
Visa-Free Travel to EU
On the first day of his presidency, Poroshenko announced that starting from 2015 Ukrainians would not need visas to travel in the EU. When 2015 came in and the agreement hadn't been reached, Poroshenko realized he had bit more than he could chew.
"We need to accelerate the plan of introducing a visa-free dialogue with the EU," he said last December in the Verkhovna Rada.
Last week, the European Commission finally made a proposal to the Council of the EU and the European Parliament to add Ukraine to the list of countries whose citizens can travel to the Schengen area without a visa. The important question now is how long will the EU take or whether it will actually adopt the visa-free regime with Ukraine.
War Against Corruption
A week before the 2014 elections, Poroshenko promised that one of his main objectives during his presidency would be to end corruption in Ukraine.
Even the US government, the closest of Ukraine's allies, seems to be changing its opinion on Kiev. Last month, the New York Times published an article calling Ukraine a "corrupt swamp" highlighting the government unwillingness to make real changes to battle corruption.
Economy
Along with the fight against corruption, Poroshenko promised to take "decisive steps" to improve the country's economy by bringing in more foreign investment.
Earlier this year, Aivaras Abromavicius resigned from the post of Economic Development Minister because he simply couldn't do the job effectively. Meanwhile, Natalia Jaresko, the country's finance minister, hasn't done a better job either. Her policy of strict economization in an attempt to stabilize the country's economy became a nightmare for certain socially-underprivileged categories of Ukrainians, such as small-business owners and pensioners.
Governor Appointments
What to Expect From Poroshenko's Future Promises?
Poroshenko promised that by 2020 Ukraine will reach a "European standard of living," so that the country can apply for EU membership. However, for now both of these things seem highly unattainable and considering Poroshenko's presidential term expires in 2019, he won't be in the office to be held accountable for his promise.
