Viktor Yushchenko

Yushchenko Viktor Andreyevich: the third president of Ukraine

Viktor Yushchenko - President of Ukraine during 2005-2010, leader of the Orange Revolution, former chairman of the Our Ukraine party, chairman of the Supervisory Board of Alpari Bank, beekeeper.

Viktor Andreyevich Yushchenko was born on February 23, 1954 in the village of Khoruzhevka, Sumy region (Nedrigailovsky district).

Yushchenko's parents worked as teachers in a regular school. Father - Andrey Andreevich was a participant in the war of 1941-1945. He was listed as a prisoner of the Auschwitz camp. After the war he taught English.

According to eyewitnesses, he collaborated with Ukrainian nationalists. Provided financial assistance and supplied information. Mother, Varvara Timofeevna, worked as a teacher of physics and mathematics. Yushchenko has an older brother, Peter, who is also a well-known politician.

The first wife of Viktor Yushchenko is Svetlana Kolesnik. The couple divorced in 1997. Yushchenko has two children from his first marriage, Vitalina and Andrei. After Viktor Yushchenko divorced his wife, he married Yekaterina Chumachenko, whom he had met since 1993.

Katherine Claire Chumachenko held an American citizenship, which she renounced in 2007. The press and the public have repeatedly made accusations about Chumachenko's cooperation with the American authorities and espionage. In the second marriage, Yushchenko had three children - daughters Sofia and Christina, son Taras.

Viktor Yushchenko has four grandchildren.

Viktor Yushchenko studied in Ternopil, at the Institute of Economics. Specialty - accountant, specialization - agriculture.

9 years after completing his studies at the institute, Yushchenko studied at the graduate school of the Ukrainian Economic Research Institute. Yushchenko studied the organization of the agricultural sector of the national economy. He became the author of a dissertation on the development of money supply and demand and successfully defended it. Yushchenko was awarded scientific titles: Candidate of Economic Sciences, Academician of the Academy of Economic Sciences, Academician of the Ukrainian Academy of Cybernetics.

Since 1975, Yushchenko worked as an accountant on a collective farm. A year later, he transferred to a similar position in one of the branches of the National Bank. At 23 he joined the Communist Party. Since 1985, Yushchenko worked in the department of the State Bank, which was engaged in lending to agricultural facilities. Since 1987 he has been working in Kyiv.

At the time of the declaration of independence of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko was already an experienced worker in the banking sector. It was he who was appointed deputy chairman of the board of the Bank of Ukraine, who was also associated with agro-industrial activities. For 6 consecutive years, Yushchenko worked as the head of the Ukrainian National Bank. In December 1999, Yushchenko became prime minister and stayed in this position for a year and a half.

Orange Revolution

During the 2004 presidential elections, which were held from October to December and were very tense, Viktor Yushchenko announced his candidacy. Yulia Tymoshenko actively supported him.

It was a time of serious confrontation between two presidential candidates: Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych. Both candidates accused each other of falsifying the vote count.

Protests took place in Kyiv, which lasted more than a month and were called the Orange Revolution. The country was in a political crisis, so the Supreme Court decided to hold elections again. Viktor Yushchenko was elected president.

This period includes a loud scandal about the alleged poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko with dioxin, which could have occurred during dinner on September 5, 2004.

Yushchenko claims that political opponents wanted to take him out of the race for the presidency.

After the poisoning, Yushchenko's face underwent noticeable external changes: swelling of the skin, abscesses and irregularities appeared. They can still be seen in the photo.

Yushchenko's opponents argue that the disease was faked in order to create emotional benefits in the form of citizen sympathy and influence election results.

According to a 2009 opinion poll, Yushchenko was recognized as the leader of the antipathies of Ukrainians, the majority of citizens expressed distrust and negativity towards him.

Election 2010

In the presidential elections in 2010, Viktor Yushchenko failed to win. He won 5.45% of the popular vote. Viktor Yanukovych became president. In 2013, Yushchenko was expelled from the Our Ukraine party for insufficient work on the side of the opposition and for supporting Viktor Yanukovych.

Yushchenko took up cultural issues after his presidency. So, in April 2011, he became co-chairman of the Council for the Development of the Mystetsky Arsenal, a national cultural, art and museum complex. In addition, the Ministry of Justice registered NGO "Strategic Initiatives" - an institute of President Viktor Yushchenko. This organization was created so that within the framework of its activities it would be possible to discuss urgent problems for Ukraine.

Completion of active social and political activities

After the end of active political activity, Viktor Yushchenko became interested in beekeeping, in 2015 he represented Ukraine at the congress of beekeepers in Poland.

Since 2016, Yushchenko has been breeding deer and restoring the ethnographic museum in the village of Bezradichi, where he now lives on his estate. In Bezradichi, Yushchenko also has a farm and a windmill.

Since May 2018 Viktor Yushchenko has been Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Alpari Bank. This is one of the smallest banks registered in Ukraine. Yushchenko is also listed among the employees of the Dragomanov National Pedagogical University. He is an honorary professor and a member of the board of trustees.