Ex-president barred from leaving Ukraine amid alleged plan to meet with Hungary’s Viktor Orban
Associated PressKYIV, Ukraine — Former President Petro Poroshenko was denied permission to leave Ukraine for a planned meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Ukraine’s security service said Saturday. But security officials said that Poroshenko had also agreed to meet Orban, who has previously praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and refused to support Kyiv’s bid for EU accession. In a statement on social media, they said such talks would make Poroshenko a “tool in the hands of the Russian special services.” On Saturday evening, Orban’s spokesman said that Hungary “does not wish to play any part in internal political struggles,” without confirming or denying that a meeting had been planned between Poroshenko and the Hungarian leader. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was left on “the verge of a nuclear and radiation accident” Saturday after it was unable to draw power from two of the lines connecting it to the local energy grid, the country’s nuclear energy operator said.