Oleh Seminskyi

Oleh Valeriiovych Seminskyi was born on 20 December 1973 in Bila Tserkva, in what was then the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union.^[1] He began working as a consultant for the Heos company in 1991, working there for a year before becoming a consultant and translator at MKP Dnipro.^[2] From 1993 to 1998 he studied at the Kyiv National Economic University's international economics and law faculty, graduating with a master's degree in international business management.^[1] He began working as an economist at the finance division of the Ukrainian State Credit-Investment Company in 1997, and from 1998 to 2000 he was a specialist at the corporate division of Derzhinvest Ukraine [uk].^[2]

Seminskyi became head of Ukrnaftogaztekhnolohiia in 2000, and served in that role until 2003. He served as general director of Naftogazvybudovannia [uk] from 2003 to 2011, and afterwards served as chairman of the company's board until 2013. He was coordinator of Stuart Float Glass from 2017 until his election.^[2]

Seminskyi was kidnapped by masked men on 3 February 2012 after leaving his office at Naftogazvydobuvannia. Although the kidnappers introduced themselves as police, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine later concluded that they were criminals affiliated with organised crime boss Yurii Yeryniak [uk]. Seminskyi remained in captivity for the next three years until being released in a Kyiv Oblast forest in May 2015. He has since stated that he felt his release from captivity was like a "second birthday", and has stated that he endured torture during his captivity.^[3]

Several years prior to Seminskyi's kidnapping, Naftogazvydobuvannia had been established on the advice of the state-run Derzhinvest Ukraine after 20 billion cubic metres of petroleum were discovered in Poltava Oblast. Mykola Rudkovsky, head of Derzhinvest Ukraine, established the company in order to avoid falling out of favour with President Leonid Kuchma over his connections to oligarch Petro Poroshenko. At the time, Poroshenko was supporting Viktor Yushchenko, an opposition politician. Replacing Poroshenko in the company was Nestor Shufrych, a pro-Russian People's Deputy of Ukraine associated with the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united). Shufrych also brought the party's leader, Viktor Medvedchuk, onto the company. Stakes in Naftogazvydobuvannia were organised 50/50 between Shufrych and Rudkovsky; Medvedchuk held 10% of Shufrych's stake, while Seminskyi held 10% of Rudkovsky's stake.^[3] Seminskyi has expressed the belief that Rudkovsky may have been connected to Viktor Yanukovych and Rinat Akhmetov, leaders of the Donetsk Clan.^[4]

Following Seminskyi's kidnapping, Shufrych and Rudkovsky proceeded to divide Seminskyi's assets in Naftogazvydobuvannia among themselves. By the time Seminskyi had been freed from captivity, Akhmetov's energy company, DTEK, had purchased 75% of shares in the company. In 2017, he went public with his claims that Poroshenko and Akhmetov, among others, were responsible for his kidnapping in an interview to The New Voice of Ukraine.^[3] The Prosecutor General and Security Service of Ukraine launched an investigation, and in 2021 served a summons to five individuals, whom prosecutors accused of torture, kidnapping, and extortion.^[5] The identities of those given a summons were not publicly revealed, but online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda stated that Rudkovsky was among them. Shares in Naftogazvydobuvannia held by Serhii Rudkovsky, Mykola Rudkovsky's brother, were ordered to be seized by the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv.^[6] The trial of Rudkovsky, as well as those of three others, began in July 2023.^[7]