Head of the Odesa customs office Yulia Marushevska has urged Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to support reforms in the customs area and to stop putting pressure on new customs officials.

"I ask to select your position: you are with those who hinder the process or you are with us who want to conduct reforms. I ask for radical and quick steps," she said in a video message posted on the Facebook page of Chairman of Odesa regional administration Mikheil Saakashvili.

Marushevska said that when she was appointed to the post Poroshenko gave green light to positive changes and reforms, but today the Odesa customs office does not see support and it is resisting to attacks of supervision agencies, particularly, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the State Fiscal Service. Kyiv officials divert cargos going to Odesa to other customs offices. This entails the losses of the local budget.

She said that without radical reform in the customs area new customs managers who believed that changes could be made would have to leave the office or start working as usual.

Marushevska called on Poroshenko to support the adoption of the draft law on 'open customs space' and to put a halt to inspections of the Odesa customs office.