By Sergiy Karazy

WARSAW (Reuters), – A former Ukrainian president Petro Petro Poroshenko announced on Sunday that he plans to return to Ukraine next Monday despite being threatened with arrest in a treason trial he believes was trumped up and manipulated by Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s allies.

Poroshenko’s return to power sets the stage for a confrontation with Zelenskiy’s administration in what critics claim is an unwise distraction, at a time where Ukraine is bracing themselves for a Russian military attack and looking for Western support.

Western diplomats have called on Ukraine to be united before Poroshenko takes office.

Poroshenko faces criminal investigation for possible treason in connection to illegal coal sale financing that financed Russian-backed separatist fighters while he was in office from 2014-15. Zelenskiy, according to his party was accused of trying recklessly silence any political opposition.

“If you ask my if I will get arrested, no. “I am not so sure, but because there is absolutely no reason to believe that I will be arrested,” Poroshenko stated to reporters in Warsaw.

Zelenskiy’s office has distanced himself from the investigation and said that both the prosecutors as well the judiciary were independent. Poroshenko was accused of thinking he was above law.

Andriy Yanukovich Zelenskiy, Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, dismissed any suggestion that Zelenskiy had been acting like Viktor Yanukovich, the Russian-backed president who was arrested in December 2010.

Ukraine and its allies are raising alarms about the presence of Russian troops near its borders.

The United States claimed that Russia had prepared a pretext to attack the United States on Friday, despite having failed in diplomacy over the past week. This was something that the Kremlin rejected as unfounded.

Melinda Simmons (British ambassador to Ukraine) tweeted that “At the moment more than ever, it seems to me, that all political leaders #ukraine must show unity, and avoid actions that might polarise.”

Poroshenko declared that “We demand unity of all democratic forces to safeguard Ukraine…I’m absolutely positive about this possibility, of democratic, accountable opposition forces.”

Poroshenko’s Monday return from Warsaw to Kyiv coincides with the whistle stop visit of the German foreign minister. He will travel to Moscow on Tuesday for negotiations.

Poroshenko, a confectionary magnate and one of Ukraine’s most wealthy citizens was elected to head a pro-Western administration following the defeat of Yanukovich in 2014.

After Russia’s annexe of Crimea in 2014 and Russia’s support of separatist fighters during the conflict in Ukraine in 2015, relations between Russia and Ukraine collapsed.

Zelenskiy defeated Poroshenko by a wide margin in 2019. He ran on a platform to combat corruption and reduce the influence of the oligarchs from the ex-Soviet republic.

In December, Ukrainian authorities requested that Poroshenko be arrested. Bail was set at one billion Hryvnia (or $37 million).