Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko (born 26 September 1965) was the President of Ukraine from 25 May 2014 to 20 May 2019, succeeding Oleksandr Turchynov and preceding Volodymyr Zelensky. Called "the Chocolate King" because of his large confectionery company, Poroshenko was a billionaire and occasional politician, previously serving as the head of the National Bank (2007–12) and Minister for Foreign Affairs (2009–10).
Biography[]
Poroshenko was born in Bolgrad in Odessa Oblast, Soviet Union in present-day Ukraine. Poroshenko graduated from college in 1989 with a degree in economics, and he started business by selling cacao beans. Later, he began to manufacture chocolate, and by 2012 he had $1 billion and became known as "The Chocolate King".
He also became a politician, serving as the head of the Ukrainian National Bank from 2007 to 2012 and the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2010. In 2014, Poroshenko supported the Ukrainian Revolution against the corrupt government of Viktor Yanukovych, the Russian-backed dictator who embezzled government money to build himself a mansion. Poroshenko made no large deposits of money to support the Euromaidan rebels, but helped in other ways, such as endorsing their cause. In May 2014, months after the February revolution, Russian-backed separatists stepped up their activity against President Oleksandr Turchynov as the presidential elections of 25 May inched closer. Poroshenko was a very popular candidate, and he won the elections with 55% of the vote.
Under his tenure as President, Poroshenko vowed to launch a counteroffensive against the insurgents in eastern Ukraine. He took over the Donetsk International Airport after an assault and airstrikes that killed around 40 insurgents, with no Ukrainian losses. He made brief truces, but since rebels continued to fight, he launched fierce counteroffensives that recaptured much lost lands. However, a ceasefire in late 2014 was breached by a new Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) offensive against the Ukrainian Army. The DPR and the Luhansk People's Republic were supported by Russia in their conflict, and in February 2014 1,500 Russian troops crossed the border into Ukraine. The army lost control of the Donetsk Airport in the second fierce battle for control of the terminal in the history of the Ukrainian Civil War, and the rebels, using artillery and Russian-supplied arms, continued to push on the Ukrainian city of Mariupol. Poroshenko succeeded in negotiating several ceasefires with Russia, but he supported the Ukrainian Orthodox Church's split from the Russian Orthodox Church, a major religious schism. Despite this, corruption flourished under his regime, and he exiled the popular politician Mikheil Saakashvili in 2016. In the 2019 presidential election, he was defeated by the populist candidate Volodymyr Zelensky, who won the election with 73% of the popular vote.