Former Ukrainian leader on way to event after two failed attempts

Former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko managed to make it out of his country on Monday, on his third attempt to make it to a political conference in the Netherlands.

Poroshenko failed in his attempts to get out of Ukraine - despite being in possession of an exemption that is keeping most military-age men in Ukraine - on Friday and Saturday due to problems with his documents.

But the borders opened for Poroshenko on Monday and he is now on his way to a meeting of the European People's Party in Rotterdam to hear a briefing on NATO, according to a statement on his Facebook page. He has so far made it to Poland, according to the Ukrinform news agency.

Poroshenko, 56, was president from 2014 to 2019. He is now opposition leader, but has landed in hot water since leaving office, most recently facing treason charges for allegations of entering into business deals while in office with eastern Ukrainian separatists supported by Moscow.

According to accounts, those deals involved contracts for about €100 million ($107.3 million) worth of coal, though only significantly smaller sums of money are alleged to have changed hands.