Semen Semenchenko
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Semen Semenchenko | |
|---|---|
Семен Семенченко | |
 | |
| People's Deputy of Ukraine | |
| 8th convocation | |
| In office November 27, 2014 – August 29, 2019 | |
| Constituency | Self Reliance, No.2[1] |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 6 June 1974 |
| Party | Samopomich |
| Spouse | Nataliya Moskovets |
| Children | 3 |
| Alma mater | Sevastopol National Technical University |
| Occupation | Soldier, politician |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  Ukraine |
| Branch |  National Guard |
| Service years | 2014–2015 |
| Commands |  Donbas Battalion |
| Conflicts | |
Semen Ihorovych Semenchenko (Ukrainian: Семен Ігорович Семенченко; born 6 June 1974) is a former deputy to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, First Deputy Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on National Security and Defence[3] and the commander-founder of the Donbas Battalion, a territorial defence battalion based in Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk Oblasts.[4][5] He was a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada from 2014 to 2019.[6]
Semenchenko was born as Konstantin Igorevich Grishin (Russian: Константин Игоревич Гришин) on 6 June 1974 in Sevastopol.[7] He is ethnically Russian.[8] He moved to Donetsk at an early age. In 1993 he entered the Black Sea Higher Naval Institute of Nakhimov, and transferred to the Sevastopol National Technical University, faculty of finances. From 2006 to 2008 Semenchenko studied to become a film director.[9][10] He has three sons – Hryhoriy, Mykhailo, and Artem.[7]
Career
According to Semenchenko, he and the other members of the Donbas Battalion gained combat experience in the Ukrainian army or Soviet Army.[9] He said he worked in "business activities in the field of security" before the war in Donbass.[5] Semenchenko, the founder of the Donbas Battalion, said in May 2014: "Our state needs defending, and we decided that if the army could not do it, we should do it ourselves."[5][9]
On 19 August 2014, Semenchenko was wounded by shrapnel when his forces were hit by mortar fire before entering the town of Ilovaisk, 18 kilometers east of Donetsk. He underwent emergency surgery and recovered slowly. He was later awarded the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky by the Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov.[11] During 2014 he was always photographed wearing a balaklava. Removing it on 1 September 2014, he stated, "I was never afraid, I was worried about my family; they are now safe and I'm not afraid."[12][13]
Semenchenko made his entry into national politics prior to the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election. Appearing second on the party list of Samopomich, he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada.[14][15]
On February 9, 2015, by the Decree of the President of Ukraine Semen Semenchenko delegated his powers as a commander of the Donbas battalion to Anatolyi Vynogrodskiy though being a founder of the battalion Semenchenko remained its honoured commander.[16]
Semenchenko was the Samopomich candidate in the 27 March 2016 early mayoral election in Kryvyi Rih. With 10.92% of the vote he lost this election to Yuriy Vilkul (who won the re-election with 74.18%).[17]
Semenchenko did not take part in the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, he said his experience and organizational skills would be more useful for Ukraine outside parliament than the “guerrilla war” of an opposition deputy.[6]
Political positions
Semen Semenchenko took part in the 2004 Orange Revolution and 2013–2014 Euromaidan popular uprisings. In 2014 during the parliamentary elections the battalion commander Semenchenko decided to run for the elections as a member of the party of a Lviv politician, Mayor of the city Andriy Sadovyi - Self-Reliance Union.[18][19][20] On September 12, 2014, a list of candidates was made public and the commander of the battalion was number 2, while Аndriy Sadovyi was number 50. In Espreso.TV studio he explained his reasons to go into a big-league politics:
There are things to be done right now before the elections to the Parliament. First of all, it is a situation with wounded, captured and deceased. The most common situation for the people being captured is no chance to be released quickly. There is a very long chain of agreeing. I think according to Minsk agreements these people should be already free. We will create civil pressure without shouting, rallies but together with the mothers and wives of the captured soldiers to get a report on what is going on.[21]
One of the issues of Semenchenko program is building of the Ukrainian military organization created by him which mobilizes the society to encourage a process of forming a unified system of the territorial defence in Ukraine. According to Semenchenko:
This is a system of training, selecting motivated people. Mothers and wives won’t follow them shouting: Give our children back. These are older people who have already decided themselves and are motivated to protect their Motherland. A lot of them can’t join battalions, the army. They will join the territorial defense forces in their area.[21]
His vision of the future Ukraine as a final aim of his political activity Semenchenko expressed like this:
Our dream Ukraine is a strong independent state where the law allowing people to reach results relatively to their abilities without any family connections or protection will be in force. The war will be over when the country becomes strong and the society becomes just.[22]
At the beginning of June Semen Semenchenko together with veterans of the Donbas battalion inspected checkpoints to the Crimea and from the Crimea. At each such checkpoint they found about 500 trucks a day carrying different stuff:
Trucks owners do not pay anything to the Budget and those people who patronize this are becoming rich as it is not possible to do if you don’t have a patron on a high level. For example, petrol smuggling during Yanukovych presidency was patronized by his son, but who is doing this now is not known though it should be on the level of the Presidential Administration.[23]
Being a member of the Self-Reliance Union Semen Semenchenko is a Deputy Head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Security and Defence.[24]
Opposition to the Minsk agreements
In June 2014 Semenchenko together with soldiers of the Donbas Battalion went to the Presidential Administration to protest against the introduction of a cease-fire.[25][26]
In 2015 Semenchenko together with the Donbas battalion requested near Shyrokyno to cancel demilitarization.[27]
Semenchenko claimed the necessity and availability of alternatives to the Minsk agreements, and later co-authored a law to supplant them.[28]
Awards and honours
On August 21, 2014, by the decree of the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, Semenchenko was awarded the Bohdan Khmelnytsky Order, Third class for "personal courage and heroism shown during protection of the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, dedication to loyalty oath, highly professional execution of his duty".[29][30] He was awarded for the service in the battle shown while liberating the cities of Artemivsk, Popasna and Lysychansk. On September 1, 2014, the Order was handed together with a service gun — the Makarov pistol from the Head of SBU.[31][32]
Semenchenko was also awarded with a department encouraging honour of the MoI ‘Firearm’ – nameplate weapon having the right to live carrying - Fort-17 pistol of domestic production.[33][34] During the official ceremony in the Regional Hospital of Mechnikov in Dnipropetrovsk visited by the acting Prime-Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Semenchenko took off the balaklava in public for the first time.[35][36]
On July 22, 2015, during the first anniversary of the Popasna city liberation from the separatist militias, the administration of Luhansk Oblast handed a medal 'for the merits to Popasna district' to Semen Semenchenko.[37][38]
International activity
Semen Semenchenko is a member of a group on interparliamentary connections with the United States of America.[39]
| External image | |
|---|---|
 Semen Semenchenko and Senator John McCain |
On September 14, 2014, Semen Semenchenko being a member of a delegation of the Ukrainian Military Organization arrived to the United States of America where he met members of the Congress, representatives of the Pentagon, American civil society and Ukrainian diaspora. They discussed how the USA can help to create the territorial defence of Ukraine.[40]
On November 12, 2014, Semen Semenchenko, Andriy Teteruk and Yuriy Bereza had a meeting with the Head of Department of Consular Support of Ukraine - Poliova Alla Valentynivna in Frankfurt (Germany). During the meeting they discussed the issue of volunteers’ help to ATO participants and shared their ideas about possible perspectives of cooperation. Semen Semenchenko also touched the urgent topic of providing those who suffered during the ATO in Ukraine with quality prostheses.[41]
Semen Semenchenko went to the US to pay a visit to military training centres to talk about training.[42]
On November 13, 2014, Semen Semenchenko with a delegation came to the US to discuss provision of the military aid to Ukraine with congressmen.[43]
Civil activity
In the middle of February 2015 Semen Semenchenko initiated a creation of his personalized charitable organization Charitable Fund of Semen Semenchenko. The main activities of the fund are resettlement of volunteer soldiers, providing assistance to them in treatment and rehabilitation, providing assistance to the soldiers and their families who are in poor financial conditions.
On February 18 in Dripropetrovsk being already a member of the parliament, an ex-commander of the Donbas battalion Semen Semenchenko, deputy commander of the Volunteer Ukrainian Corps Valentyn Manko and a supervisor of the Kryvbas battalion Mykola Kolesnyk said they were to set the General Staff of volunteer battalions as a coordination centre to exchange intelligence data which will provide information to the President of Ukraine. The Staff was headed by seven commanders including Semenchenko and a leader of Right Sector (Pravyi Sektor) Dmytro Yarosh.[44][45][46]
Volunteers’ support
Semen Semenchenko is a civil activist in providing legal rights and interests of volunteers, namely his activity is aimed at preventing illegal prosecution of volunteers, taking soldiers of volunteer battalions on bail and visiting courts to provide support and protection for soldiers.[47][48][49]
Semen Semenchenko took part in protests to protect a founder and soldier of the Aydar battalion Valentyn Lykholit (code name Batia). Thanks to active actions Kyiv Court of Appeal let Valentyn Lykholit out on bail of the Verkhovna Rada deputies Semen Semenchenko and others.[50][51]
Semen Semenchenko was also present and provided support and protection of interests of NABU (the National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine) in Solomianskyi Court of Kyiv where NABU accused a military prosecutor of the ATO area Kostiantyn Kulyk of illegal getting rich.[52]
Participation in a lustration process
In January 2015 Semen Semenchenko together with Yehor Soboliev and others accused a judge of Kharkiv District Administrative Court of delivering a judgment which doesn't express the will of people. Threats of Yehor Soboliev (judges will be thrown out of the windows) and Semen Semenchenko became a subject of an open letter of the Judges Council of Ukraine about threatening their health and lives. Soon the claimant refused of the lawsuit because it was dangerous for the judges that's why the judgment of the first instance court was not evaluated by the appeal court.[53]
Semen Semenchenko in his turn expressed his views on the situation:
It is necessary for a law to be in force. If there is a law on ‘Сivil Servants Screening’ judges could not substitute the will of people by their judgments. If they substitute, they will be punished. If we have neither anticorruption bureau, nor practice of punishing judges and prosecutors, we will use creative methods: encouragingly, legally, by a good word and a dumpster if necessary.[54]
