Verkhovna Rada Chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk confirmed that the leader of the European Solidarity party, Petro Poroshenko, had indeed signed a business trip to a meeting of the Political Assembly of the European People's Party.

"I was surprised to hear today that MP Petro Poroshenko went on a business trip last night to meet with the leader of the European People's Party, but he was not allowed to leave the country. Indeed, MP Petro Poroshenko had a business trip signed by me for a meeting of the Political Assembly of the European People's Party, which was held in Brussels on January 13-14. Taking into account the logistics, the MP in his statement asked to send him from January 11 (departure date) to January 15 (return date)," Stefanchuk said, the press service of the parliament said on the Telegram channel.

He suggested that Poroshenko had independently decided not to go, as evidenced by his actual presence in the Verkhovna Rada meeting room during the days on which the business trip was scheduled.

"From a legal point of view, a business trip should have a legal purpose. Therefore, the reason and the legal purpose for which MP Petro Poroshenko needed to leave Ukraine on the evening of January 15, allegedly for the meeting of the Political Assembly that ended the day before, are unknown to me," Stefanchuk stressed.

As reported, Poroshenko, when speaking from the rostrum of the Verkhovna Rada on Thursday, said that he was illegally prevented from leaving the Ukrainian border when he was on his way to a meeting with the leaders of the European People's Party in Brussels.