Situationen i Ukraina just nu.

According to the popular Russian television channel Russia-1, Poroshenko’s father was a Jew named Alexei Valtsman from the Odessa region who in 1956 took on the last name of his wife, Yevgenya Poroshenko.

Poroshenko’s media team did not reply to JTA requests for comment, but they are not indifferent about the subject.

Last year, Poroshenko’s spokeswoman asked Forbes Israel to remove her boss’ name from a list of the world’s richest Jews, a magazine source confirmed.

Eight months into his presidency, Yushchenko has seen his coalition of reform-minded allies destroyed by fierce infighting and competing accusations of corruption. Earlier this month, the crisis forced him to fire Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and accept the resignations of top aides, including National Security and Defense Council chief Petro Poroshenko.

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In 2003, Viktor Pinchuk, former President Leonid Kuchma's billionaire son-in-law, acquired the eastern Ukraine plant in a privatization widely regarded as rigged. Though the plant was worth $1 billion, Pinchuk paid $80 million. Pinchuk maintains the privatization was done legally.

Shortly after taking office, Tymoshenko announced an ambitious plan to revisit 3,000 privatizations of state-owned enterprises during the Kuchma era. The plan sent chills through Ukraine's investment community, and Yushchenko later emphasized that only about a dozen privatizations would be scrutinized.

Tymoshenko focused her attention on privatizations that benefited Ukrainian businessmen with close ties to Kuchma. That included the acquisition of Ukraine's largest steel mill, Kryvorizhstal, by Pinchuk and Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov last year for $800 million. The mill is expected to sell for more than $2 billion in a state auction next month.

Pinchuk's majority stake in Nikopol was next. Ukrainian courts initially ruled that the Nikopol privatization was lawful, but after Tymoshenko's intervention, they reversed their decision and ordered the return of Pinchuk's stake back to the state, Pinchuk said. He also accused Tymoshenko of trying to help Pryvatbank, a minority stakeholder in Nikopol and a Pinchuk rival, of wresting control of the metals plant, according to Ukrainian media reports.

In firing Tymoshenko, Yushchenko cited Tymoshenko's handling of the Nikopol case. "High officials started directing events in favor of corporate interests. Then crises appeared," The Associated Press quoted Yushchenko as saying Sept. 11.

In an interview in Kiev, Tymoshenko denied the allegations and said she has no relationship at all with Pryvatbank. She also accused Poroshenko, her nemesis within Yushchenko's circle of advisers, of fighting to block the government from taking Nikopol from Pinchuk.

In recent weeks, Russian and Ukrainian media have suggested Poroshenko was working behind the scenes to block the seizure of the Nikopol stake, so that Pinchuk could proceed with its sale to Russian magnates Viktor Vekselberg and Alexander Abramov. Poroshenko could not be reached for comment Monday.