Valeriy Volodymyrovych Ivashchenko () (born on 30 July 1956 in

Zaporizhia Zaporizhzhia, formerly known as Aleksandrovsk or Oleksandrivsk until 1921, is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zaporizhzhia has a population of ...

) was the Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine in 2007–2009, and as the Acting Minister from 2009 to 2010.

Biography and personal life

In 1978, Ivashchenko graduated from the Military Engineering Academy named after Mozhaiskogo. His service began at the

Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. Located in the Kazakh city of Baikonur, it is the largest operational space launch facility in terms of area. All Russian Human spaceflight, crewed spaceflights are l ...

. From 1978 to 1993, he served in military engineering and command positions in the Baikonur and

Plesetsk Plesetsk () is an urban locality (a work settlement) and the administrative center of Plesetsky District, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia, situated about northeast of Moscow and south of Arkhangelsk. Municipally, it is the administrative center ...

Cosmodromes. In 1993, he graduated from the

Dzerzhinsky Military Academy Russia has a number of military academies of different specialties. This article primarily lists institutions of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation rather than those of the Soviet Armed Forces. Russian institutions designated as an "aca ...

. From 1993 to 1995, Ivashchenko served in the positions at the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine arms. From 1995 to 1996, he was the Head of the Center of Administrative Management Group's strategic nuclear forces of the

Ministry of Defense of Ukraine The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine () is the ministry of defence, ministry of the Government of Ukraine, Ukrainian government that oversees national defence and the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The head of the ministry is the List of Ministers of De ...

. From 1996 to 2000, he worked in the Office of Military Mobilization work and law enforcement agencies of the

Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (), commonly referred to as the Government of Ukraine (), is the highest body of state Executive (government), executive power in Ukraine. As the Cabinet of Ministers of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republi ...

. From 2000 to 2001, State Expert management of foreign national security aspects of the

National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, ( NSDCU; , ''RNBOU'') or RNBO, is the coordinating state body of the executive power under the President of Ukraine on issues of national security and defense. It is a state agency tasked wi ...

. From 2001 to 2003, he served as head of the department of the State Committee on the Military-Industrial Complex of Ukraine. From 2003 to 2005, he was Head of the Department of Defence and Industry Policy Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. In 2005, he was the Deputy Head of the Department of Industrial Policy of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. From 2005 to 2007, Ivashchenko was the Deputy Head of Service Security and Defense Policy as well as the Head of the Defence

Office of the President of Ukraine The Office of the President of Ukraine (, ), formerly the ''Administration of the President of Ukraine'' ( ), is a standing advisory body set up by the President of Ukraine pursuant to clause 28, Article 106 of the Constitution of Ukraine. The ...

. From October 2007 to June 2009, he was Ukraine's Deputy Minister of Defence. Following the resignation of Yekhanurov, orders from the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine was appointed by the First Deputy Minister of Defence of Ukraine in March 2010, and subsequently served as Minister of Defense of Ukraine. From November 2012 to November 2019, he lived in

Copenhagen, Denmark Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the Øresund strait. The Øres ...

, and worked at the Royal Danish Defense Academy. From August 2020 to September 2021 he was the First Deputy Minister of Strategic Industries of Ukraine. He is married, and has a son and a daughter.

Criminal proceeding

On August 21, 2010, Ivashchenko was detained by the Military Prosecutor. He was accused of illegally deciding on Sale of Assets Feodosia ship & mechanical plant. He was arrested three days later. In June 2011, Ivashchenko announced an indefinite hunger strike in protest against the bias of the panel of judges, but soon stopped the hunger strike due to health. Ivashchenko's lawyers filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights in relation to a violation of pre-trial and during the trial. In an interview with Kommersant, Ivashchenko said he had no relation to the sale of property alienation and CRS. On April 12, 2012, he was in a district court in Kyiv, sentenced to five years of

imprisonment Imprisonment or incarceration is the restraint of a person's liberty for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is considered " false imprisonment". Impri ...

. Ivashchenko said that his case was fabricated by former Deputy Attorney General Vitaly Shchetkin. The USA and the European Union criticized the judgment and spoke of "selective justice". A European Parliament mission led by former Polish President

Aleksander Kwaśniewski Aleksander Kwaśniewski (; born 15 November 1954) is a Polish politician and journalist. He served the maximum two terms as the president of Poland from 1995 to 2005. His tenure as President was marked by modernization of Poland, rapid economi ...

investigated several trials and criminal judgments in Ukraine in the summer of 2012 (including those against Ivashchenko and against

Yulia Tymoshenko Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko ( Hrihyan born 27 November 1960) is a Ukrainian politician, who served as Prime Minister of Ukraine in 2005, and again from 2007 until 2010; the first and only woman in Ukraine to hold that position. She has been ...

and Yuriy Lutsenko) and criticized the Ukrainian judiciary in the process. On August 14, 2012, an appellate court reduced Ivashchenko's sentence to a one-year prison sentence, which was suspended and released from custody in the courtroom. Ivashchenko fled to Denmark, and in January 2013, the Danish government granted him and his wife

political asylum The right of asylum, sometimes called right of political asylum (''asylum'' ), is a juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereignty, sovereign authority, such as a second country or ...

. On April 4, 2014, the court canceled its sentence for Ivashchenko.

External links

Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ivaschenko, Valeriy 1956 births Living people Politicians from Zaporizhzhia Ukrainian politicians convicted of crimes Military personnel from Zaporizhzhia Ministers of defense of Ukraine Recipients of the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, 3rd class Recipients of the Order of Danylo Halytsky Prisoners and detainees of Ukraine Ukrainian prisoners and detainees