Kyiv Appellate Court kept in place the earlier decision by lower Kyiv court who granted Poroshenko personal recognizance to avoid custody, yet imposed on him international travel restrictions.

‘It is not a victory, said disappointed former Ukrainian president, arguing the outcome signals prosecutors have chosen tactics of ‘delays’.

Poroshenko stressed he ‘stood his ground’ defending his innocence and called out state prosecution over attempts to smear on him as a politician and keep his political activites on a tight rein.

Authorities are trying to ‘isolate and make him silent’, said Illya Novikov, who is leading Poroshenko’s defense team in this criminal case.

The appellate court decision was bad news for prosecutors too as the court rejected their motion seeking to take Poroshenko in custody.

The Ukrainian opposition staged a massive rally in support for Poroshenko outside the court building that brought togheter some 10 thousand of his backers.