Yuriy Vitaliyovych Lutsenko (; born 14 December 1964) is a Ukrainian politician, who served as Interior Minister and entered the Armed Forces during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. His most recent position was Prosecutor General of Ukraine (from 12 May 2016Lutsenko appointed prosecutor general in Ukraine , UNIAN (12 May 2016) until 29 August 2019The new Attorney General was a former NAPC member , Ukrayinska Pravda (29 August 2019)). Lutsenko has been a long serving people's deputy in the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament); first elected in 2002 and reelected in 2007 and 2014.
Lutsenko was Minister of Internal Affairs in the two cabinets of Yulia Tymoshenko and in the cabinets of Yuriy Yekhanurov and Viktor Yanukovych. The Ministry of Internal Affairs is the Ukrainian police authority, and Lutsenko became the first civilian minister in February 2005. Lutsenko is also a former leader of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, and a former leader of its faction in the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament).Poroshenko wants coalition to be formed before parliamentary elections , Interfax-Ukraine (27 August 2014) Solidarity Party to be renamed Bloc of Petro Poroshenko – congress , Interfax-Ukraine (27 August 2014)
In 2010, Lutsenko was charged with abuse of office and forgery by Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Pshonka,Ukraine prosecutors charge ally of opposition leader Tymoshenko , Kyiv Post (13 December 2010) in what was widely viewed as political retaliation for having investigated one of Yanukovych's cabinet members four years earlier. In 2012, he was sentenced to four years in prison, but was pardoned by Yanukovych in 2013.Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych pardons Yulia Tymoshenko allies, BBC News (8 April 2013) Ukrainian leader Yanukovych pardons Tymoshenko ally , BBC News (7 April 2013) Ukrainian president pardons Lutsenko and Filipchuk – decree , Interfax-Ukraine (7 April 2013) In 2016, he became Ukraine's chief prosecutor under President Petro Poroshenko, during which time he was criticized for undermining Ukraine's newly established National Anti-Corruption Bureau. While in office, Lutsenko became a central figure in the Trump–Ukraine scandal, in which he worked with U.S. President Donald Trump to try to find incriminating information on Trump's then-presumed opponent in the 2020 United States presidential election, Joe Biden. He was dismissed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2019; Trump later tried unsuccessfully to pressure Zelenskyy to reinstate him.
Following the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Lutsenko joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine and has taken part in several battles since. On 5 July 2023, Lutsenko announced that he would no longer serve in the Ukrainian Armed Forces due to an established disability. According to him, he would "work towards victory as a volunteer".
Early life Lutsenko was born in Rivne. His father was Vitaliy Ivanovych Lutsenko (15 March 1937 – 4 June 1999), who was elected people's deputy of Ukraine in 1994 and 1998, and secretary of the Central Committee of Communist Party of Ukraine. Lutsenko's mother is Vira Mikhailivna (born 1936), a veterinarian.
Lutsenko earned his degree in electronic engineering in 1989 from Lviv Polytechnical Institute.
Political career Lutsenko first gained public fame as one of the leaders of the Ukraine without Kuchma campaign, which followed the Cassette Scandal of 2000.Ukrainians renew tent protest , CNN (5 March 2001) He was also one of the "faces of the Orange Revolution". From 1991, Lutsenko was a long-term member of the Socialist Party of Ukraine (SPU).
In the 1998, Lutsenko unsuccessfully ran for the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) as number 58 on the list of the SPU and Peasant Party of Ukraine Bloc and in Ukraine's 152nd electoral district from the same block.
Lutsenko became a people's deputy in the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) following the 2002 Ukrainian parliamentary election (as third on the election list of SPU).Small biography on Yuriy Lutsenko, Civil movement "Chesno" Lutsenko belonged to the pro-European faction akin to social democratic parties in the rest of Europe, rather than a post-Soviet oldfashioned socialism.
Lutsenko became Minister of Internal Affairs in the first Tymoshenko Government of Yulia Tymoshenko appointed on 4 February 2005.
As a minister, Lutsenko refused to run in the 2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election on his party list. However, he has run for both the Kyiv City Council and the Rivne Oblast Council simultaneously in the lists of the Socialist Party – "to make the point", as he explained. Having won these seats, Lutsenko resigned from both in favor of his Minister's position as the Constitution of Ukraine prohibits occupying positions in the legislative and executive branches of the government at the same time.
Lutsenko suspended his membership of the SPU in the summer of 2006 as a result of the party leader Oleksandr Moroz's entering into a coalition with the Communist Party of Ukraine and the Party of Regions of former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. When the coalition of the Party of Regions, Communists, and defected Socialists began to take shape, Lutsenko stated flatly that he would refuse to continue serving as the minister in a future government formed by these parties. However, after President Viktor Yushchenko agreed to allow the forming of the cabinet in exchange for several political concessions including the ability to pick the Minister of Interior, Lutsenko stated that the president asked him personally to remain as the minister, and he would do so.
Lutsenko was formally dismissed by the Verkhovna Rada on 1 December 2006. The same month, Lutsenko created the Civil Movement "People's Self-Defense".Yuriy Lutsenko's initiative to create civil movement "People's self-defense" supported by political party "Ukraine, onward!" , Radio Ukraine (25 December 2006)
In the September 2007 Ukrainian parliamentary election Lutsenko was reelected to the Verkhovna Rada as the number 1 on the list of the Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc as a non-party member.
On 18 December 2007, Lutsenko again became minister of Internal Affairs, when Yulia Tymoshenko was again elected Prime Minister of Ukraine.
Incident at Frankfurt Airport In early May 2009, Lutsenko became entangled in a scandal concerning his behaviour during a visit to Germany. According to the German newspaper Bild, Oleksandr Lutsenko, his son, was detained at Frankfurt Airport by the German police in a state of acute alcohol intoxication. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry dismissed these allegations. On 12 May 2009, Yuriy Lutsenko sent in his resignation from the post of interior minister. In his letter of resignation, the minister described the incident that happened in Frankfurt, and stressed that the German police had officially apologized to the Ukrainian delegation for this incident; but that despite this, German mass media disseminated false publications, which were later re-published by Ukrainian media. Lutsenko was confident that a dirty campaign had been waged against him in Ukraine. The aim of the campaign, according to him, was to destabilize the work of the Interior Ministry.Lutsenko sent in his resignation from post of Interior Minister , UNIAN (12 May 2009) On 15 May 2009, the Verkhovna Rada passed a resolution, stipulating to address the government with a request to suspend Yuriy Lutsenko from the post of the Interior Minister of Ukraine until the "drunken incident" is investigated.Verkhovna Rada asks government to suspend Lutsenko from post , UNIAN (15 May 2009)
Later, on 12 May 2009, Lutsenko claimed that he would sue Bild. According to Lutsenko, the publication does not contain "any true things, any references to documents or real officials".Lutsenko to sue Bild, which published story about drunken incident , UNIAN (12 May 2009)
President Viktor Yushchenko considered his appeal for resignation "a logical step, which should be made ..." Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko believed that the information about the incident was doubtful.
On 15 May 2009, the Verkhovna Rada passed a resolution asking the government to hold a seven-day official investigation into the events at Frankfurt Airport (first deputy [interior] minister Mykhailo Kliuyev served as acting Minister that period).Speaker:Lutsenko suspended as Ukraine's interior minister, Kyiv Post (18 May 2009)Kliuyev to serve as Ukraine's interior minister during Lutsenko's suspension from duty, Kyiv Post (16 May 2009) After that Lutsenko resumed at his post.Lutsenko says he will resume fulfilling duties as interior minister, Kyiv Post (27 May 2009)
On 10 June 2011, Bild retracted the report about the events at Frankfurt Airport after being ordered so by the Landgericht Berlin.German newspaper Bild retracts report on drunken incident with Lutsenko's son at Frankfurt airport, Kyiv Post (10 June 2009)
Dismissal as minister Lutsenko was dismissed by the Verkhovna Rada on 28 January 2010.Update: Ukraine's parliament dismisses interior minister , Kyiv Post (28 January 2010) The same day he was appointed by the Cabinet as first deputy interior minister and acting interior minister.Lutsenko says he's calm about his dismissal , Kyiv Post (28 January 2010) The Kyiv District Administrative Court suspended the government's decision until the end of an investigation into his appointment, but the Cabinet claimed it had not received any court ruling on the matter.Regions Party: Kliuyev is legitimate head of Interior Ministry , Kyiv Post (1 February 2010) After the fall of the second Tymoshenko Government, Lutsenko eventually lost his post as Minister of Internal Affairs on 11 March 2010.Ex-chief of Crimean police heads Ukrainian Interior Ministry , Kyiv Post (11 March 2010)
In 2010, Lutsenko became the leader of the party People's Self-Defense Political Party.Lawyer: Lutsenko detained as part of a new 'case on abuse of office' , Kyiv Post (27 December 2010)Interior minister planning to set up full-fledged political force , Interfax-Ukraine (29 January 2009)
Criminal cases and imprisonment