Poroshenko: Putin wants to stay in power forever, not going to end war with Ukraine

He told this to journalists, commenting on Putin's message to the Federal Assembly and the resignation of the Russian government, the party's press service reported.

"My absolutely firm position is that there is no government in Russia, there is no parliament, Duma, in Russia, and there is no Federal Assembly. All power is in the hands of one person. You know the name and surname of this person very well. So the resignation or appointment of a new Russian government is absolutely of no interest to me and should be of no interest to Ukrainians," Poroshenko said.

At the same time, he stressed that Putin's message to the Federal Assembly on January 15 should be analyzed very carefully.

"I conclude from this message that Putin is not going to end the war with Ukraine," Poroshenko said.

"The second conclusion is that Putin is going to stay [in power] forever. He is ending his term as president, and the purpose of yesterday's message is amendments to the Constitution, which now, when president may not be Putin, take away all power from that president, transfer it him to another post. I don't know how it will be called - chairman of the State Council, prime minister, or something like what happened in Kazakhstan, but it will be one person - Putin," he said.

"All this is being done to keep power in Putin's hands," the politician said.

"Therefore, I advise everyone to pay very close attention to the message and draft amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation. This carries direct risks and threats to our state," Poroshenko said.

He also said that under these conditions, the Ukrainian state should unite to adequately respond to challenges and risks from which the year 2020 started.

The Russian government led by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev resigned on January 15. At the same time, Putin proposed that Medvedev take up the post of deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia. Putin also nominated Head of the Federal Tax Service of Russia Mikhail Mishustin for prime minister.

The same day, Putin delivered a message to the Federal Assembly and proposed bringing forward a package of amendments to the Constitution on the partial redistribution of powers between government agencies. In particular, he proposed granting the State Duma the right to approve, rather than only agree on the appointment of the prime minister, deputy prime ministers, and other government officials.

On January 16, State Duma deputies approved Mishustin's appointment as prime minister.

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