Ukrainian President Zelensky caught plagiarizing Poroshenko's speech on 'Russia’s imperialist project'
A spokesman for the former president of Ukraine, Svyatoslav Tsegolko, revealed that the current head of state, Vladimir Zelensky, “stole” a whole paragraph from one of the former president’s speeches. Tsegolko posted the revelation to Facebook. As proof, Tsegolko published a video fragment of Poroshenko’s speech with a statement that coincides exactly with what Zelensky said.
Zelensky made the statement in question during a meeting with the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk. “Ukraine joining the EU will be the death of Russia’s imperial project. Moreover, it is a powerful blow to Russian authoritarianism and the way to democratic change in Russia and throughout the entire post-Soviet space,” Zelensky said.
“It’s blatant plagiarism. Zelensky, the new president, stole a whole paragraph from Petro Poroshenko’s speech made during a congress of the European Solidarity party. It's nice that Vladimir listens to Petro Poroshenko,” Tsegolko wrote, advising the current president to hire a speechwriter as well as a proofreader.
The words, that Zelensky would later repeat, were first said by Poroshenko at the congress of the European Solidarity Party on May 31. The party was formerly called the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, changing its name on May 24.
The Presidential Administration of Ukraine commented on the incident. It announced that an official investigation was being conducted. “It was preliminarily established that the staff at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine had prepared talking points to brief President Vladimir Zelensky while still working for Petro Poroshenko,” read the Presidential Administration’s statement published on Facebook. It promised to take “tough managerial, disciplinary and personnel measures” if collaboration between Ministry of Foreign Affairs representatives and Poroshenko was to be confirmed.
“We view this as sabotage on the part of individual employees at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a deliberate provocation from Petro Poroshenko’s team,” the statement said.