Viktor Yanukovych

Biography

Viktor Yanukovych was born in 1950 in Yenakiieve in the Donetsk region of Soviet Ukraine. He studied at the Donetsk technical institute and was a member of the Soviet Communist Party in the 1980s. After independence he rose in regional administration, becoming governor of Donetsk Oblast in 1997, and from 1999 to 2001 he also chaired the oblast council.

President Leonid Kuchma appointed him prime minister in 2002. He ran for president in 2004 and was declared the winner over Viktor Yushchenko, but evidence of fraud set off the Orange Revolution, and he lost the court-ordered rerun. As leader of the pro-Russian Party of Regions he returned as prime minister from 2006 to 2007.

He won the 2010 presidential election against Yulia Tymoshenko in a vote observers judged fair. His presidency saw Tymoshenko jailed, press freedom decline and corruption spread. In November 2013 he backed away from an association agreement with the European Union, which set off the Euromaidan protests. After nearly 100 protesters were killed in February 2014, he signed a settlement with the opposition and then fled; parliament removed him the next day.

He has lived in Russia since then. In 2019 a Ukrainian court sentenced him in absentia to 13 years in prison for high treason.