The leader of Ukraine’s Batkivshchyna Party and presidential contender Yulia Timoshenko has said that she had embarked on initiating impeachment proceedings against the country’s current President Pyotr Poroshenko.

“We declare that we are beginning impeachment proceedings against the president along with other factions that support us,” she said in the Ukrainian parliament on Tuesday, as reported by Tass news agency.

Timoshenko added that journalists earlier published an investigation, which revealed the involvement of Poroshenko and his entourage in allegedly smuggling spare parts for the Ukrainian army from Russia at over-inflated prices. “This is actually assisting the enemy and destroying the Ukrainian army. This is a cognizable case. We believe this falls under Section 111 of the Criminal Code (high treason),” she asserted.

According to Article 111 of Ukraine’s Constitution, the Ukrainian president can be ousted from his post through an impeachment process in the event of committing high treason or another crime.

However, to do that, a special mechanism is required, which should be enshrined in a special impeachment law that Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada (parliament) has been unable to pass since 1996.

Timoshenko earlier said that the law on the head of the state’s impeachment would be approved if she became president.