Anatoliy Stepanovych Hrytsenko (; born 25 October 1957) is a Ukrainian politician, independent deputy of the 7th Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada, former Minister of Defence, and member of the Our Ukraine political party and leader of the Civil Position party. Політична партія „Громадянська позиція“, Database DA-TAWestern Ukrainian intelligentsia calls on candidates for president to withdraw in favor of Tymoshenko , Interfax-Ukraine (October 1, 2009)Civil Position organization has chance to become 160th political party , Radio Ukraine (December 11, 2008)
Education Hrytsenko graduated from Kyiv Higher Military Aviation Engineering School on 23 June 1979. On 10 December 1984 he was awarded a Candidate of Sciences (Ph.D.) degree from Kyiv Higher Military Aviation Engineering School. In 1993 Hrytsenko graduated from the Defense Language Institute of the United States Department of Defense. On 6 June 1994 he graduated from the Resident Program of the U.S. Air War College and on 30 October 1995 Hrytsenko graduated from the Academy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Hrytsenko is author of more than 100 scientific papers published in Ukraine, Belgium, the Netherlands, United States, Germany and Switzerland. Short bio, LIGA
Army career Hrytsenko served 25 years in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in combat units, as teacher at the military college and in staff positions in the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. He retired with the rank of colonel. From December 1999 till 2004 he worked as a military consultant in various firms. In February 2000 Hrytsenko served as Freelance Consultant on the Committee on National Security and Defence of the Verkhovna Rada and in November 2000 as a member of the Public Council of Experts on domestic issues of the President of Ukraine.
Political career In 2004 Hrytsenko worked in the election headquarters (for the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election) of Viktor Yushchenko and took an active part in the writing his election program.
Minister of Defence Hrytsenko became Minister of Defence in the First Tymoshenko Government in February 2005, he continued this position in the Yekhanurov Government. On 4 August 2006, he was appointed again as head of the Ministry of Defence in the government of Viktor Yanukovych on the quota of President Yushchenko.
As Minister of Defense, Hrytsenko took up the issues of financing and reforming the Armed Forces. In 2005, for the first time in recent years, the army was fully funded. In 2006, its budget grew by 51% and reached ₴8.9 billion. Compared to 2004, in 2005 combat training indicators increased by an average of 40-50%.
In 2007, when Hrytsenko was the Minister of Defense, a military hospital in Dnipropetrovsk was sold to a private company. After that, the former military facility was given to the Russian VTB Bank, which later received direct control over this hospital. Petro Poroshenko's commissioner for the peaceful settlement of the conflict in Donetsk and Lugansk Oblasts stated that "Today, in fact, the hospital where our guys are being treated belongs to the invader country." In October 2014, this information was confirmed by Valeriy Heletey who served as Minister of Defense at the time.
Hrytsenko resigned from his post as minister following a conflict with president Viktor Yushchenko, whom he accused of viewing the army property as "superfluous".
People's Deputy In the early 2007 parliamentary elections he was elected into the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament) as number 4 on the party list of the pro-president Yushchenko Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc. Although this bloc was part of the Second Tymoshenko Government Yuriy Yekhanurov became Minister of Defense in this cabinet.Tymoshenko asks President to dismiss Yekhanurov as Defense Minister, UNIAN (May 20, 2009), Ukrainian News Agency (May 20, 2009), Ukrainian News Agency (May 20, 2009)Yekhanurov denies reports of corrupt schemes at defense ministry, Interfax-Ukraine (May 20, 2009)
In January 2010 Hrytsenko became party leader of Civil Position. Hritsenko will go on at the head of the party renamed?, Ukrayinska Pravda (February 12, 2010) Hrytsenko was a candidate for President of Ukraine in the 2010 Ukrainian presidential elections, and in the election he received 1.2% of the votes (finishing ninth). ЦВК оприлюднила офіційні результати 1-го туру виборів, Gazeta.ua (January 25, 2010) In the second round he called on voting against both candidates (Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Yanukovych).Tymoshenko’s Looming Defeat: How Did She Make It Inevitable? , Serhiy Kudelia (January 29, 2010) Civil Position gained one seat in the Ternopil city council during the 2010 Ukrainian local elections. Results of the elections, preliminary data, on interactive maps by Ukrayinska Pravda (November 8, 2010)
During the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election Hrytsenko was elected into the Verkhovna Rada as 3rd on the electoral list of Batkivshchyna., Список депутатів нової Верховної Ради, Ukrayinska Pravda (11 November 2012)They Call Themselves the Opposition, The Ukrainian Week (31 August 2012)Hrytsenko refused to sign statement of opposition , UNIAN (13.11.2012) but he later resigned from Rada because of disagreements with the faction.Batkivschyna demands Hrytsenko resign as MP, Interfax-Ukraine (18 June 2013)Hrytsenko agrees to abandon parliamentary seat, Ukrainian Television and Radio (18 June 2013)Hrytsenko resigns from parliament, Interfax-Ukraine (17 January 2014)
Post-2014 Activity Hrytsenko was one of the candidates for presidency in the 2014 Ukrainian presidential election. According to the opinion poll ordered by 1+1 TV channel and conducted by GfK Ukraine on 6–8 May, 5.6 per cent of the surveyed planned to vote for him. In the election he received 5.48% of the vote, ranking him in 4th place. Results election of Ukrainian president, Телеграф (29 May 2014)
In the 2014 parliamentary election Civil Position took part on a joint list with members of the Democratic Alliance. The party decided Gritsenko, who will go to Council, Ukrayinska Pravda (7 September 2014) For elections in single member constituencies, both parties participated separately.Hrytsenko's party gave to "Demalliance" two places in the top ten. LB. 7 September 2014 In the election the alliance failed to clear the 5% election threshold (it got 3.1% of the votes) and also both parties did not win a constituency seat and thus no parliamentary seats.Poroshenko Bloc to have greatest number of seats in parliament , Ukrainian Television and Radio (8 November 2014)People's Front 0.33% ahead of Poroshenko Bloc with all ballots counted in Ukraine elections - CEC , Interfax-Ukraine (8 November 2014)Poroshenko Bloc to get 132 seats in parliament - CEC, Interfax-Ukraine (8 November 2014)
On 4 April 2018, National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) informed that the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Office initiated a criminal proceeding based on results of state financial audit of "Viysktorhservis" consortium. Representatives of public organizations called on the Prosecutor General to check these facts.
Hrytsenko's Civil Position nominated Hrytsenko as a candidate in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election on 11 January 2019. Hrytsenko formally nominated a presidential candidate, Ukrayinska Pravda (11 January 2019) Hrytsenko's candidacy was supported by the European Party of Ukraine, Native Land, Alternative, and Wave. The presidential candidate, Gritsenko, promised to cut off his hands, Ukrayinska Pravda (11 January 2019) On 1 March (2019) fellow candidates Andriy Sadovyi and Dmytro Gnap withdrew from the election and urged (their) voters to support Hrytsenko. Gnap also withdraws from the elections in favor of Hritsenko, Ukrayinska Pravda (1 March 2019) On 7 March Dmytro Dobrodomov stepped out of the election also in favor of Hrytsenko. Another candidate appeared in favor of Gritsenko, Ukrayinska Pravda (7 March 2019) During the 2019 presidential election campaign Hrytsenko proposed to create a Ukrainian military reserve force and to legalize firearms (including registration of all firearms). Hrytsenko promises to legalize firearms and create a voluntary army, Ukrayinska Pravda (25 March 2019) In the election Hrytsenko did not proceed to the second round of the election; in the first round he placed fifth with 6.91% of the votes. Results of the presidential election in 2019. The first round, Ukrayinska Pravda (31 March 2019)
In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election Civil Position gained 1.04% of the national vote and no parliamentary seats.CEC counts 100 percent of vote in Ukraine's parliamentary elections, Ukrinform (26 July 2019) Results of the extraordinary elections of the People's Deputies of Ukraine 2019, Ukrayinska Pravda (21 July 2019)
Awards Honorary weapon – Fort-12 pistol (25 October 2007)
Earnings According to the declaration, in 2016, Hrytsenko earned ₴150,000. He has four apartments in Kyiv (with an area of 56.2 m2, 80.2 m2, 32.9 m2 and 110.3 m2), a car Volvo XC90, as well as €106,000 in bank accounts.
Personal life From 1978 to 2002, he was married to Lyudmila. The couple had two children. Oleksii (born 1979) graduated from the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, he was a forward and then vice president of the Berkut Hockey Club, director of business development at the Enran Telecom research and production company, and first deputy head of the Youth Union of Our Ukraine party. In 2006, Enran Telecom (in which Oleksii Hrytsenko was working at the moment) became one of the co-executives of the project to create a unified automated system for managing of administrative and business processes in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. About ₴100 million was allocated for the implementation of the project. The eldest daughter Svetlana (born 1982) graduated from school with a gold medal, received a bachelor's degree in international economics from the Kyiv National Economic University and a master's degree in international business from University of Stirling in Scotland. Svetlana worked as an expert at the Ukrainian Centre for Economic and Political Studies (UCEPS) and in the election headquarters of Viktor Yushchenko, then became the press secretary of the Berkut Hockey Club and the project manager for the Kyiv office of The PBN Company. Anatoliy Hrytsenko is married to Yulia Mostova, a chief editor of well known Ukrainian newspaper Dzerkalo Tyzhnia and a widow of Oleksandr Razumkov. Hrytsenko and Mostova had to celebrate the wedding seven times, most recently in June 2003, together with the then-future Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and his wife Kateryna Chumachenko. On 6 March 2016, the couple married in the church. Hrytsenko and Mostova have a daughter Anna (born 2004), also Mostova have a son Hlib (born 1999) - the youngest son of Razumkov.
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External links
Biography by Taras Kuzio Personal web-site