Oleksandr Romanovych Onyshchenko is a Ukrainian businessman, oil and gas trader, people’s deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of the VII and VIII convocations.
Place of Birth, Education
He was born on March 31, 1969 in the village of Matveev Kurgan, Rostov region (Russia) in the family of a military man.
In 1990, he graduated from the Kharkiv Higher Military School of the Rear, having received the qualification of an officer.
In 2008, he received his second higher education at the National Transport University with a degree in Enterprise Economics.
Career
After graduating from the school, in the period from 1990 to 1997, he was engaged in entrepreneurial activities in the field of fuel and energy.
Also from 1992 to 1997, he was engaged in public activities, holding the position of deputy chairman of the board of the Dnipro district branch of the Union of Veterans of Afghanistan in the city of Kyiv.
Since 2007, he worked as an assistant minister in the department for supporting the activities of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Ukraine.
In 2009, Onyshchenko became the owner of 100% of the authorized capital of the Nadra Geocenter company, which was engaged in the exploration of gas fields, production and sale of natural gas. Before being elected to the parliament of the VII convocation, he held the position of director of the enterprise.
In 2011, he acquired 90% of the shares of the private joint stock company Plast, which was engaged in the production of natural gas, condensate and oil, as well as the distribution and supply of natural gas.
Political Activities
In October 2010, he was elected a deputy of the Kyiv Regional Council from the Party of Regions.
From December 2012 to November 2014, he was a people’s deputy of the Verkhovna Rada (Verkhovna Rada) of the VII convocation. He ran for the Party of Regions. He was also a member of the deputy group “Economic Development” and served as deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Fuel and Energy Complex, Nuclear Policy and Nuclear Safety.
In the early elections in the fall of 2014, Onyshchenko was again elected to the Rada as an independent candidate. In the parliament, he was a member of the deputy group “People’s Will” and served as deputy chairman of the Committee on Fuel and Energy Complex, Nuclear Policy and Nuclear Safety.
On June 9, 2017, YogiO was expelled from the parliamentary group.
Sports
In 1998, he became the vice-president of the all-Ukrainian sports public organization “Equestrian Federation of Ukraine”.
In the period from 2002 to 2013, he served as president of the Equestrian Federation of Ukraine. Then he became a member of the board of the All-Ukrainian Equestrian Federation, headed the competition department.
Onyshchenko formed the composition of the national equestrian team of Ukraine and represented the country at the 2008 Olympic Games in China.
In 2012, he competed at the Summer Olympics in London in the obstacle course, where he took 70th place.
In 2013, he acquired the Arsenal football club from politician Vadim Rabinovich.
Criminal cases
On July 5, 2016, the Rada allowed the detention, prosecution and arrest of Onyshchenko.
On July 27 of the same year, the then Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko signed a notice of suspicion against Onyshchenko of committing a number of crimes. The latter was suspected of organizing an illegal scheme for the resale of natural gas in the period from 2013 to 2016. According to the investigation, the members of the scheme illegally seized 1.6 billion hryvnias, due to which the public joint stock company (PJSC) Ukrgasvydobuvannya suffered losses in the amount of about 740 million hryvnias, and the state budget lost more than 2 billion hryvnias.
On July 9, 2016, Onyshchenko announced that he was in London and said that he had appealed to the British authorities with a request to grant him political asylum. On the same day , the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) summoned him for questioning on August 2.
On August 9, the Solomenskyi District Court of Kyiv allowed the detention and arrest of Onyshchenko, and on August 10, NABU put him on the wanted list.
On December 1, 2016, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced that a criminal investigation was underway against Onyshchenko for high treason.
On November 29, 2019, he was detained in the German city of Aachen at the request of NABU. After that, the local court began considering his extradition to Ukraine.
In early May 2020, the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees refused to grant Onyshchenko political asylum and ordered him to leave the country.
At the end of the same year, the politician received Russian citizenship.
On April 5, 2024, the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) sentenced him in absentia to 15 years in prison.
Marital Status
Onyshchenko’s eldest daughter, Diana, was born in 1994.
The politician was once married to the model and holder of the title “Miss Ukraine-1997” Ksenia Kuzmenko. In this marriage, a son, Oleksandr, was born in 2002.
In 2009, he was engaged to top model Snezhana Onopko, but the wedding did not take place, and in early 2010 the couple broke up.
In 2017, from his marriage to rhythmic gymnast Anna Rizatdinova, he had a son, Roman. In 2019, the couple divorced.
In October 2021, in the German city of Ankum, the politician had a daughter.
