Petro Andriyovych Yushchenko
Official biography
Born on September 15, 1946 in the village of Khorunzhivka, Sumy region. He has a higher education.
In 1970, he graduated from the Kharkiv Institute of Municipal Engineering, specialty: “Electrical Engineer.
Career
- 06.1998 — Acting Chairman of the Board of the First Investment Bank (FIB).
- 2002 — Member of the Parliament of Ukraine of the IV convocation, was elected on the list of Viktor Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine bloc, No. 45 on the list.
- 2002 — Member of the “Our Ukraine” faction.
- 2002 — Member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Culture and Spirituality. At the time of the election: President of Sloboda LLC (Kharkiv).
- “Top 100” of the most influential people in Ukraine
- In 2006, Petro Yushchenko was ranked 60th in the “Top 100” of the most influential people in Ukraine by the Korrespondent magazine.
- In the early parliamentary elections of 2007, he was elected to the parliamentary seat on the Our Ukraine — People’s Self-Defense party list (No. 39).
- In 2007, in the “Top 100” list of the most influential people in Ukraine, as determined by the “Correspondent” magazine, Petro Poroshenko took the 53rd position.
- In 2007, he was ranked 50th in the Focus magazine’s “200 Most Influential Ukrainians” list.
- In 2008, in the “Top 100” of the most influential Ukrainians, determined by the “Correspondent” magazine, Petro Yushchenko took 57th place.
Family
- Wife — Yushchenko Elena Nikolaevna
- Daughter — Elena, son — Yaroslav
- Brother — Viktor Yushchenko, former President of Ukraine
- Father — Andriy Yushchenko
Kopromat
For many years, Petro Yushchenko has positioned himself as a historian, but he has neither specialized nor merely humanitarian education.
In the post-Maidan period, Petro Yushchenko turned his hand to the fullest. In 2017, on the Ukrainian TV channel Rada, he claimed that the famous ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes, a student of Antisthenes, the founder of the school of the Cynics, spoke Ukrainian and tried to convince the government to make it the official language in Greece.
“There was no civilization south of Somalia and Ethiopia and there will not be. To the east and northeast of the Don, civilization is conquering, and the civilization that created, in particular Scythia, Ukraine, which stands on the border, yes, Ukraine is an outskirt, only an outskirt of civilization, of this Oikoumena,” Yushchenko argued.
When asked by the host whether the Ukrainian language existed in ancient times, Petro Yushchenko said: “Absolutely. Anacharsis wrote 50 maxims in this language over 600 years. Thus, he and Solon created a legal basis, a legal philosophy. And 300 years after that, Diogenes recommended that the Hellenic government use the language in governing the country. There was a language.”
Yushchenko’s brother is involved in a scandal: artists were “cheated” of money
The scandal erupted around the project “Great Ukrainians in Portraits,” which for several years was held at the Ukrainian House exhibition center under the patronage of Petro Yushchenko, the brother of former President Viktor Yushchenko. Odesa-based artist Oleksandr Kokovych (who painted both original paintings and copies of other artists’ works) and frame maker Ihor Marchenko claim that the organizers owe them a lot of money and are not going to return it. According to them, while the former government was at the helm of the country, there were no problems with payments for the work done, but everything has changed dramatically since the Orange Party lost power. Frames and paintings continued to be ordered, but no one was in a hurry to pay for them. As a result, over the past year and a half, the debt for picture frames owed to Igor Marchenko has already reached a solid amount of 153,000 hryvnias, while Oleksandr Kokovych was more fortunate — he was not paid “only” $2000 for his oil paintings.
According to the victims, their calls demanding the return of their honestly earned money are either ignored or Anatoliy Kvetnyi, Petro Yushchenko’s deputy on the matter, feeds them promises. Ihor Marchenko told us that he took out a loan secured by picture frames and has to pay 200 euros in interest every month. He is desperate because his business is on the verge of collapse. The artist Kokovic is not yet in such a desperate situation, but he is ready to take radical measures if his demands for repayment are ignored.
How to become addicted to coffee in German captivity
Petro Yushchenko has a great influence on his brother, and Viktor Andriyovych took many of his historical ideas from him while he was president. At the same time, Petro Andriyovych put Viktor Yushchenko in an extremely awkward position, saying once: “In our family, we drank good coffee every day, and my father became addicted to it in captivity.”
According to the official version, Andriy Yushchenko, the father of Petro and Viktor, fought in the Red Army and was later taken prisoner. It is safe to say that ordinary prisoners of war had no chance to become addicted to coffee. To enjoy this drink in a concentration camp, you had to be an agent of the administration, and a very valuable one at that.
“Sloboda”
Sloboda first came to light after information about the detention in Chisinau of a plane carrying weapons to Yemen and the “embezzlement of a loan from the Sokilska agricultural enterprise” was made public. Both scandals involve the now-bankrupt Bank Ukraina, where Viktor Yushchenko began his career and which he supervised through his people, Viktor Kravets and Petro Mikheyev (both of whom are now under arrest). By the way, all the firms in which Petro Yushchenko’s business interests were present were serviced by Ukraina.
As for the first scandal, in addition to Petro Yushchenko, it also involved Yevhen Marchuk’s son and the mayor of Kirovohrad. The businessmen decided to make money by operating a state-owned AN-26 aircraft leased from the Kirovohrad State Flight Academy. In April 1999, this plane (tail number 26042) took off from Budapest with a cargo of small arms on board (more precisely, 5000 Hungarian-made pistols — a modification of the Makarov pistol).
The cargo was intended for the Yemeni Ministry of Defense, and its route was through Bulgaria. The documents, allegedly due to a mistake by Hungarian customs, contained oil pumps. For some reason, the Bulgarians did not accept the plane, and the Moldovans arrested it for six months. The republic’s Prosecutor General Grigoriy Malik explained that the airline had concealed the true nature of the cargo when requesting an air corridor. It is rumored that Yevhen Marchuk helped to rescue the plane through his Moldovan acquaintances, while he was already the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council. It is also rumored that the weapons were not intended for Yemen. The story of the loan to Sokilske LLC is less interesting. It was made public in the midst of the election campaign by P. Yushchenko’s enemies from the NRU Bloc (leader — Bohdan Boyko). “The “New Rukhivtsi” accused Kharkiv-based Sloboda LLC of embezzling funds from Bank Ukraine.
Involvement in the collapse of AKB Ukraina
In 2002, one of the leaders of the People’s Movement of Ukraine bloc, Serhiy Konev, accused Petro Yushchenko, then director of Sloboda LLC, of misappropriating one of the bank’s loans. According to Konev, on May 29, 2000, a loan from Ukraina Bank was transferred to the account of Petro Yushchenko’s company, and a criminal case was opened against the head of Sokilske LLC (Novochornohlazove village, Yurievsky district, Dnipropetrovs’k region).
The scheme was as follows: the director of Sokilske LLC signed a “clean payment” expecting to receive a loan of UAH 500 thousand from the bank, but the bank disbursed only UAH 187,909. 68 kopecks. This amount was recommended to be transferred to the current account of Sloboda LLC and promised to facilitate lending in the future.
When transferring money from Sokilske LLC to the bank account of Sloboda LLC, according to Sergiy Konev, the legal norms prohibiting payment for a third party were violated. Mr. Yushchenko was obliged to return the money to the sender as an unjustified transfer. Instead, a “fake” contract for the sale of the equipment was fabricated, Konev says.
Viktor Yushchenko says that his brother, Petro Andreyevich, is an “honest man” who has no debts to any institution, including Bank Ukraina. According to Viktor Yushchenko, if Petro Andreyevich took out loans, it was only on a general basis, and he has repaid them.
Political career
As for Petro Yushchenko’s political career, it began thanks to his younger brother Viktor. It was he who secured Mr. Yushchenko’s seat in the parliament. Moreover, today Petro Andriyovych is directly involved in coordinating all organizational issues of the Our Ukraine bloc. Recently, there has been information that, in addition to organizational issues, P. Yushchenko will also oversee the financial issues of the political force headed by his brother. It is assumed that he will work together with Ivan Plyushch.
Doctoral Degree Revoked
The Certification Board of the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) has canceled the decision of specialized academic councils to award a doctorate to Petro Yushchenko for academic plagiarism.
The relevant decision was made at a meeting on February 26, 2020, the press service of the Ministry of Education and Science reports.
In particular, the board canceled the decision to award the degree of Doctor of Sciences to Yushchenko Petro Andriyovych (specialty “History of Ukraine” 07.00.01) due to non-compliance with the appropriate criteria for doctoral dissertations, in particular, it does not contain the author’s scientific positions and scientifically substantiated results in the field of historical science that solve an important scientific or scientific-applied problem, the presence of textual borrowings and incorrect references.
In this case, the topic of the dissertation was “The Kyivan Rus’ Heritage in the Historical Memory of Ukrainian Society (XII — Early XXI Centuries).”
In total, the commission canceled 3 doctoral and PhD degrees.
“It is very important when the professional community does not remain silent, but calls a violation a violation, plagiarism a plagiarism, and imitation of science an imitation. Only when scientists themselves stand up for high scientific standards can we make a final decision. That is why we are very grateful to everyone who does not remain silent and does not tolerate imitation in their scientific discipline,” said Deputy Minister of Education and Science Yehor Stadnyi.
Involvement in RosUkrEnergo
In January 2006, MPs Ihor Shurma and Oleksandr Holub published copies of payments for the transfer of money from RosUkrEnergo, an intermediary in Ukrainian-Russian gas relations, to two entities in the United Arab Emirates and the United States. The MPs do not rule out that Petro Yushchenko is involved in these companies. According to Shurma, $53 million was received by a company called Petrogaz, and $12.3 by Refin commercial company, which is registered in Oregon and has an account with the Estonian bank Hansabank. Shurma cited only an article from the French website Ukraine intelligence as evidence of the connection between Petrogaz and Petro Yushchenko.
Viktor Yushchenko denied the information about his brother’s involvement in RosUkrEnergo: “Please provide materials that confirm this. My brother is already involved in everything — from space to the dungeon. I cannot comment on any legends.” (Kommersant-Ukraine, March 23, 2006).
Mr. Rosukrenergo also denies all the accusations: “Rosukrenergo existed under the previous government. How could I have been admitted to this company, to this trough in those years? This structure was created by the previous government. One can only guess how it was founded by those who were in charge of the state at that time and responsible for the state of affairs in the industry. But I cannot name names, I did not see it. I’m putting an end to it here“ (”Economic News,” March 24, 2006).
An interesting interview
On January 07, 2011, the Kharkiv TV channel “Fora” broadcast a verbose interview with Petro Yushchenko, the President’s brother. It is difficult to convey a half-hour stream of consciousness from the economy, gas pipes to Aristotle, apostles, high priests, princes, northern pagans, Cyril and Methodius, who wrote down the ancient Ukrainian alphabet, and the one local church, and the poor girl journalist could not even insert a few phrases…
But the ending is very characteristic, it explains a lot about the behavior of the “holy family” and their attitude toward us, ordinary people:
“The wish from Petro Yushchenko on Christmas Eve, after the call to choose ‘your Moses’ in the elections, sounded like this:
“I wish you the fulfillment of not those desires that you wish for yourself!
Otherwise, a person can wish for something that God forbid…
I wish YOU the fulfillment of those desires that you need…
The wishes that WE need!
The land on Andriyivskyy Descent, where they wanted to create Slipak’s park, was given to Yushchenko’s family in 2005.
This was written by journalist Arkady Babchenko.
«Do you remember when we were collecting signatures for a petition to make a park named after Vasyl Slipak on Andriyivskyy Descent in a vacant lot? It turns out that this 0.06-hectare land was leased to the Sula company in 2005 for 25 years,» he writes. According to him, the owners of the company are Petro Yushchenko and Olena Yushchenko.
“A brother and his son’s wife. To build a restaurant and a complex with a shop,” the journalist writes.
Yushchenko appoints Oleksandr Sagan as head of the Committee on Nationalities, Migration and Religions
In the winter of 2008, Petro Yushchenko appointed Oleksandr Sagan as head of the Committee on Nationalities. This caused a strong media reaction. And for good reason. In the summer of the same year, information appeared on the Internet that Sagan was accused of receiving the largest bribe in the history of Ukraine.
Scandal with airplane passengers
The brother of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko “did his best” to keep the media’s coverage of the president’s family to a minimum. As soon as the passions about the president’s son had not yet subsided, his own brother, a member of the Verkhovna Rada, was thrust into the spotlight.
The incident occurred on 27.07.2005 at Boryspil airport during the departure of Aerosvit flight 101 from Kyiv to Kharkiv.
After boarding, the passengers sat for over an hour in the plane ready for departure, but takeoff was constantly delayed without explanation. The most radical citizens offered to go out on the runway. Then, finally, the stewards “split” and explained that they were waiting for another passenger: Petro Andriyovych Yushchenko, the Ukrainian president’s brother, reports From-UA.
The VIP passenger never got on board. An hour and 10 minutes later, the plane finally took off. People could not calm down for a long time: many people had canceled their appointments, and some had relatives waiting anxiously for them.
In Kharkiv, a Mercedes 500 was waiting for Petro Yushchenko at the VIP parking lot. Apparently, Petro Yushchenko was so busy that he did not even call the driver. The driver left only after making sure that his boss had not arrived.
Financial situation
Petro Yushchenko is not a poor man. According to some information, he owns a house in Kharkiv and an apartment in Kyiv.
“Now I know what begging looks like”
I saw the income declaration of the People’s Deputy of Ukraine Petro Yushchenko.
As it turned out, according to Yushchenko’s declaration, he privately owns apartments with a total area of 302 square meters. His wife owns an apartment of 229 square meters. They also own a 477-square-meter house.
And now I recall how a year and a half ago I wrote that Petro Andriyovych Yushchenko, despite the demands of his brother, the President of Ukraine, to give up his parliamentary privileges, received a free apartment in Kyiv of about 50-60 meters for himself, his wife, and his son. And these 50-60 meters, provided by the state, were somewhere drowned among the Yushchenko family’s 531-meter apartment. Of course, it was much more important to give an apartment to a low-income deputy, Petro Yushchenko, than to give it to those on the waiting list of doctors, teachers, or firefighters. (c) journalist Serhiy Leshchenko, Ukrainska Pravda.
Summary
Thanks to his brother, the president, Petro Andriyovych once rose through the ranks and laundered money into his pocket. But in addition to corruption, cheating artists and illegal arms sales, Petro Yushchenko is going out of his way to convey to people his idea of a fixation that the Ukrainian language and the Ukrainian people were the main and only ones in the history of human existence, and that Ukrainians are the ones who made virtually all historical discoveries. Yushchenko the elder is a disgrace to the Ukrainian nation.