Yuriy Lutsenko

Dismissal as minister Lutsenko was dismissed by the Verkhovna Rada on 28 January 2010. The same day he was appointed by the Cabinet as first deputy interior minister and acting interior minister. 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. After the fall of the second Tymoshenko Government, Lutsenko eventually lost his post as Minister of Internal Affairs on 11 March 2010.

In 2010, Lutsenko became the leader of the party People's Self-Defense Political Party.

Criminal cases and imprisonment On 13 December 2010, Lutsenko was charged with abuse of office and forgery by Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Pshonka. According to Lutsenko the criminal case against him is political persecution. Pshonka has denied this. Lutsenko was also charged with having signed an order whilst on holiday and not having cancelled the traditional "National Militia Day" despite a general instruction from the then Prime Minister to make budgetary savings where possible. Lutsenko has been jailed since 26 December 2010 in Kyiv's Lukyanivka Prison. Lutsenko was arrested near his home on 26 December; on 27 December a court ordered his arrest on the grounds that he had been dodging questioning in violation of his written pledge not to leave Kyiv. Lutsenko went on a hunger strike from 22 April till 24 May 2011 in protest against his "preventive punishment".

Lutsenko filed a complaint in a U.S. court on 14 December 2011 against his (Ukrainian) prosecutors, made possible by the Alien Tort Statute, for "illegal arrest and arbitrarily prolonged detention".

On 27 February 2012, after a pre-trial detention of 14 months, Lutsenko was sentenced to fours year in jail (with confiscation of his property) for embezzlement and abuse of office. The European Commission stated the day of his sentence "signals the continuation of trials in Ukraine which do not respect international standards as regards fair, transparent and independent legal process"; Spokesperson for the United States Department of State Victoria Nuland stated the cases raised "serious concerns about the government of Ukraine's commitment to democracy and the rule of law"; other Council of Europe member have criticised the sentence in similar wording. In a statement issued by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) right after the verdict of 27 February 2012 Lutsenko was named "the victim of a political vendetta"; Human rights organizations have urged the high courts in Ukraine to overturn the verdict against Lutsenko. On 29 February 2012, the European People's Party demanded "immediate release of Yulia Tymoshenko, Yuriy Lutsenko and other political prisoners; it also insisted the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union should not be signed and ratified until these demands were met. An appeal to the sentence was filed 7 March 2012. Since the EU has shelved the European Union Association Agreement and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with Ukraine because of the imprisonment of him and Tymoshenko.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) considered a complaint lodged by Lutsenko on 17 April 2012, in which Lutsenko claimed his arrest and the decision on his detention were arbitrary and unlawful. On 3 July 2012, the ECHR stated that the arrest of Lutsenko violated his human rights and the court ordered the government of Ukraine to pay €15,000 to Lutsenko as compensation for moral damages.

On 17 August 2012, Lutsenko was sentenced to two years in prison for the extension of an investigative case concerning Valentyn Davydenko, the driver of former Security Service of Ukraine First Deputy Chief Volodymyr Satsiuk, as part of an investigation into the poisoning of then presidential candidate Viktor Yuschenko. During his imprisonment Lutsenko was moved several times to hospital to receive medical treatment.

Lutsenko lost his appeal on 3 April 2013; this High Court ruling could be challenged in any other Ukrainian court.

The judges of the Higher Specialized Court on Civil and Criminal Cases will on 10 April 2013 announce a ruling on the appeal against the second conviction of Lutsenko regarding the poisoning of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko; this will not influence the term of Lutsenko's imprisonment.

Pardoning After already having suggested it earlier, The requests to pardon Lutsenko was made by Ukrainian parliamentary Lutkovska, former President of the European Parliament Pat Cox and former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski. On 7 April 2013, a decree by Yanukovych pardoned Lutsenko (among others) for health reasons and "to decriminalize and humanize Ukrainian legislation" and the same day he was released from prison.

Lutsenko and his family had repeatedly stated that they would not seek a pardon, because they believe the charges where groundless and political punishment. Nevertheless, Lutsenko's wife Iryna Lutsenko welcomed the request.

Political career after April 2013 pardoning In the spring of 2013, Lutsenko established the non-parliamentary movement "Third Republic". At the time he was not member of a political party because he is "on a path to the same goal pursued by "Fatherland" from the bottom up and from the people, by organizing a connection between opposition parties and the populace".

In November 2013, Lutsenko became one of the organizers of Euromaidan.

Lutsenko was hospitalised on 11 January 2014 in an intensive care ward after being beaten by police in protests following the sentence of verdicts in the 2011 Vasylkiv terror plot. After the convicts had been transported away, several cars followed the riot police bus and blocked it at Peremohy avenue, near Svyatoshino police station. A crowd soon gathered, demanding from policemen to open their faces and to show their IDs. According to Lutsenko's wife Iryna her husband had been attacked by police as he tried to break up the violence. Lutsenko has received an official status of victim of a crime.

On 17 June 2014, Lutsenko was appointed as (non-staff) adviser to President Petro Poroshenko; he had also been adviser to Poroshenko's predecessor acting President Oleksandr Turchynov.

Lutsenko's old party People's Self-Defense Political Party was renamed Third Ukrainian Republic in July 2014; however, Lutsenko was not a member of this revamped People's Self-Defense Political Party.

On 27 August 2014, Lutsenko was elected the leader of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc. He then became leader of the party's faction in the Verkhovna Rada.

On 28 August 2015, the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform merged into Petro Poroshenko Bloc. UDAR leader Vitali Klitschko at the same party congress replaced Lutsenko as new party leader. was also stripped of his mandate as a People's Deputy.

From August until December 2016, Lutsenko conducted an investigation into Ukraine-born Russian GRU agent Konstantin Kilimnik, but did not arrest Kilimnik. Previously, Kilimnik managed Davis Manafort International in Kyiv. Mueller considered Kilimnik a vital witness in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.

Began in 2017, four investigations into Paul Manafort by the Head of the Special Investigation Department of the Prosecutor General's Office Ukraine Serhiy Horbatyuk were frozen by Lutsenko in April 2018. the secret bookkeeping of Viktor Yanukovych and the Party of Regions' Black Ledger or Barn Book involved another investigation into Manafort in which the handwritten records of 22 payments to Manafort, nine of which had been signed by Vitaly Kalyuzhny who was the Verkhovna Rada's foreign relations committee chairman. The National Anti-Corruption Bureau informed the United States Department of State that Lutsenko had thwarted both Ukraine's investigation into Manafort and Mueller's investigations into Manafort. On 9 November 2018, President Petro Poroshenko refused to approve Lutsenko's resignation.

Documents, provided by Lev Parnas to the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, outlined text exchanges in which Lutsenko pushed for the ouster of then U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and offered information related to former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in return. It is thought that Lutsenko targeted Yovanovitch due to her anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine.

Following the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Lutsenko was dismissed by the Verkhovna Rada on 29 August 2019, and replaced by Ruslan Riaboshapka.

According to his wife Iryna, Lutsenko was initially in the Territorial Defence Forces of Kyiv during the Kyiv offensive, and then took part in the Battle of Mykolaiv, 2022 Kherson counteroffensive, Battle of Soledar and the Battle of Bakhmut.

In early 2023, Lutsenko was promoted to the rank of Kapitan. She served in parliament until 2019. After fellow Petro Poroshenko Bloc members left the Verkhovna Rada, she returned as a People's Deputy on 27 January 2015. In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, she was re-elected for European Solidarity as 25th on the electoral list, but resigned in November 2019 for health reasons. Her mandate was officially terminated on 12 November 2019.

Awards Commander of the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise Fifth Class – awarded on 14 December 2006 for significant personal contribution to the defense of the ideals of democracy, the protection of constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens, and active participation in nation building.