Kostenko Roman Vasilyevich
Official biography
Born on October 21, 1983 in Kherson.
Education.
He has a higher military education. He graduated from the Airborne Faculty of the Institute of the Land Forces in Odesa. He has a specialization in combat use and management of units (units, formations) of the Land Forces.
He completed a 6-month Q-course of the JFO Special Operations Forces under the guidance of US instructors.
Career
Roman Kostenko’s career is related to the army and law enforcement. From 2005 to 2008, he served in the Seventy-ninth Airborne Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He commanded a platoon and then a company.
Lieutenant Colonel of the Security Service of Ukraine, Deputy Head of the Alpha Department of the Security Service of Ukraine Office in Mykolaiv region.
In late April 2014, he went to defend Ukraine in the East. His military call sign was “Hrom”.
He conducted operations in Izyum, Kharkiv region, and reconnaissance of the frontline positions in Sloviansk. He participated in the heroic defense of Donetsk airport, where he became a «cyborg». After returning from the front, he entered the Academy of Public Administration under the President of Ukraine, Faculty of Public Administration in the Field of European Integration. As of 2019, he has completed his 2nd year.
In the 2019 parliamentary elections, he was elected as a member of the Verkhovna Rada of the IX convocation from the Golos party, No. 14 on the list. Secretary of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence. Deputy Member of the Permanent Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
Family.
Based on the data in the declaration, a certain Maryna Viktorivna Kuneva, most likely Kostenko’s civilian wife and daughter Polina Romanivna, lives with Kostenko.
Compromising material
Roman Kostenko , a member of the Verkhovna Rada, suggested that Ukrainian missiles should be aimed at Russian nuclear facilities.
The parliamentarian emphasized that Russia has one of the world’s strongest armies and the largest nuclear potential, and Ukraine must counteract this.
“Now we need missiles with a range of at least a thousand kilometers, which should be in service and preventively threaten Moscow,” Kostenko said on Channel 4.
The MP suggested that Kyiv aim its weapons at nuclear power plants in Russia. According to him, this will allow to conduct diplomacy with the neighboring country “on an equal footing”.
“Moscow should know that they have nuclear power plants, just like we had in Chernobyl, and that our missiles will just fly there,” the politician is sure.
Perhaps these words were the reason why Russia imposed sanctions on Kostenko?
Violation of the law on state secrets
Mariana Bezuhla accused opposition MPs of violating the law on state secrets. The deputy head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence said on Facebook that MPs from the EU and Voice broke into a “secret” meeting of the provisional investigatory commission on the Wagner case and refused to leave.
— Today, during the meeting of the PIC, actions took place that have all the signs of violating the Law of Ukraine on State Secrets. During the hearing of the former head of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine V. Burba, MPs who are not members of the PIC broke into the room… Not being members of the commission, they refused to leave the room, despite the relevant comments from me as the chairman of the commission and members of the PIC,” the representative of the Servant of the People wrote.
Bezuhla said that the meeting considered information classified as secret. She listed the following deputies: Mykola Velychkovych, Artur Herasymov, Mykhailo Zabrodskyi, Maria Ionova, Mykola Kniazhytskyi, Sofia Fedyna (European Solidarity) and Roman Kostenko and Andriy Osadchuk (Holos). Bezugla also said that a “corresponding appeal” would be sent to the SBI.
Roman Kostenko wrote on his Facebook page that “when Vasyl Burba got to the most important part of his report, the Commission decided to urgently adjourn until tomorrow without explaining the reasons”. He also stated that it was the opposition that ensured that the former head of the Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate, Vasyl Burba, was heard.
On July 29, 2020, 33 members of the Russian PMC Wagner were detained near Minsk. Among them were nine Ukrainian citizens. According to the opposition, the President’s Office is to blame for the disruption of the special operation to detain the Wagner members in Kyiv. According to the authorities, the mercenaries were only being tracked, and the information about the disruption of the operation was disinformation from Russian special services.
Anti-Ukrainian law
Roman Kostenko was one of the MPs who voted for the anti-language law.
The declaration
At first glance, everything in the declaration is clean and unremarkable. He rents an apartment in Kyiv, one land plot and two apartments in the name of his common-law wife, and two cars. But there is one BUT!
First, the prices of the apartments are not listed. Nor is the city in which they are located. The «date of acquisition» in both apartments is January 1, 1970, and here’s a coincidence: the common-law wife’s car, a Mazda CX-5, was also purchased on January 1, 1970. Coincidence? I don’t think so, given that Mazda CX-5 cars began to be produced in Japan only in 2012. There must have been a time machine involved.
The question arises: why all this secrecy? The answer is simple, you just need to look at the income section. There we will see a salary of UAH 461,831 per year.
And the Mazda, which is registered in the name of his common-law wife, Maryna Viktorivna Kuneva, is worth more than UAH 500,000, which is more than his annual income. We assume that there is a reason why most of the real estate is registered in the name of his common-law wife, because if Kostenko had filled out the declaration honestly, the NACP would have had questions to ask this friend. Unfortunately, nothing is known about Marina Viktorovna.
I would also like to remind you that Kostenko voted for the law «Restriction of liberty instead of imprisonment for lying in the declaration».
Summary.
Here we are faced with a gray mouse who carefully hides his reputation and real income. A non-public person who is quietly sitting in power from the Golos party, gradually promoting the interests of his odious boss Yaroslav Zheleznyak.