Serhiy Kuzmenko (, born 22 January 1975) is a Ukrainian politician, businessman and state official. In the

2020 Ukrainian local elections The 2020 Ukrainian local elections took place on Sunday 25 October 2020.Ukrai ...

nonpartisan politician An independent politician or non-affiliated politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent. Some politicians have poli ...

) mayor of

Oleksandriia Oleksandriia (, ) is a city in Kirovohrad Oblast, central Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Oleksandriia Raion and . Oleksandriia is located within the Kryvyi Rih metropolitan area. In 2001, it had a population of 93,357, a ...

.Oleksandriia mayor election 2020

Central Election Commission of Ukraine The Central Election Commission of Ukraine (, commonly abbreviated as , ); sometimes referred to as the Central Electoral Commission of Ukraine) is a permanent and independent collegiate body of the Ukrainian state that acts on the basis of th ...

Kuzmenko is a former head of the Kirovohrad Regional State Administration (

Governor of Kirovohrad Oblast The governor of Kirovohrad Oblast is the head of executive branch for the Kirovohrad Oblast. The office of governor is an appointed position, with officeholders being appointed by the president of Ukraine, on recommendation from the prime minis ...

) from 16 September 2014 until 2019.

Biography

After graduating the Kirovohrad National Technical University in 1997, Kuzmenko worked at the family business Holovkivska Agro-Firm out of Holovkivka which in 2000 became known as "UkrAhroKom". In 2002, he went into politics becoming a council deputy of the Oleksandriia Raion council and in 2010–2012 was head of the Oleksandriia Raion State Administration. In 2011 Kuzmenko graduated the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Institute of the National Academy for Public Administration. In 2012 Kuzmenko became a deputy head of the Kirovohrad Regional State Administration, but at the end of 2012 was elected as a member of

Party of Regions A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...

to the

Verkhovna Rada The Verkhovna Rada ( ; VR), officially the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, is the unicameralism, unicameral parliament of Ukraine. It consists of 450 Deputy (legislator), deputies presided over by a speaker. The Verkhovna Rada meets in the Verkhovn ...

(Ukrainian parliament). After the

Euromaidan Euromaidan ( ; , , ), or the Maidan Uprising, was a wave of Political demonstration, demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on 21 November 2013 with large protests in Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Kyiv. The p ...

, he left the party. At the end of September 2014, Kuzmenko was appointed head of the Kirovohrad Regional State Administration. There were protests against this appointment, activists accused Kuzmenko of having supported the 2013 so called " anti-protest laws and of having hired "

Titushky The Titushky (plural; ; ; ; ) were mercenary agents in Ukraine who supported the Ukrainian security services during the administration of Viktor Yanukovych, often posing as street hooligans in sports clothing with the purpose of serving as provoca ...

" to beat up

protesters. Kuzmenko denied all these charges. He also added that he was never part of the so-called "

anti-Maidan The anti-Maidan (; ) refers to a number of pro-Russian demonstrations in Ukraine in 2013 and 2014 that were directed against Euromaidan and later the new Ukrainian government. The initial participants were in favor of supporting the cabinet of ...

. In the

2020 Ukrainian local elections The 2020 Ukrainian local elections took place on Sunday 25 October 2020.Ukrai ...

Kuzmenko was elected (as a self-nominated candidate) mayor of

with 57,21 of the votes.

Business and philanthropy

Along with his father, Kuzmenko own a family business known as "UkrAhroKom" which owns over of agrarian area in eastern and southeastern portions of

Kirovohrad Oblast Kirovohrad Oblast (), also known as Kirovohradshchyna (), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (''province'') in central Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Kropyvnytskyi. The oblast's population is It is ...

. The company owns the Oleksandriia Sugar Plant, transportation company "Hermes Trading", a couple of livestock farms including "Petrykivske moloko" (Petrykivka Milk), four

grain elevator A grain elevator or grain terminal is a facility designed to stockpile or store grain. In the grain trade, the term "grain elevator" also describes a tower containing a bucket elevator or a pneumatic conveyor, which scoops up grain from a lowe ...

s, a river terminal in

Svitlovodsk Svitlovodsk (, ) is a city located on the banks of the Dnieper River in Oleksandriia Raion, part of Kirovohrad Oblast in central Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Svitlovodsk urban hromada, one of the many hromadas of Ukraine. The city ...

. Kuzmenko was the owner of FC UkrAhroKom Holovkivka that existed in 2008–2014. After acquiring PFC Oleksandriya from Mykola Lavrenko in 2013, he merged both clubs under the name

FC Oleksandriya Football Club Oleksandriya (), commonly known as Oleksandriya, is a Ukrainian professional football club based in the city of Oleksandriya, Kirovohrad Oblast. Founded in 1990, the club plays in the Ukrainian Premier League. The year 1948 on the ...

in 2014.History of FC Oleksandriya

website.

References

External links

Brief profile
at the Official Ukraine Today {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuzmenko, Serhiy Ukrainian businesspeople 1975 births Living people People from Oleksandriia Party of Regions politicians Independent politicians in Ukraine Ukrainian football chairmen and investors FC Oleksandriya non-playing staff Governors of Kirovohrad Oblast Seventh convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada Mayors of places in Ukraine Businesspeople in agriculture