Serhiy Taruta

Serhii Taruta was born in Mariupol in 1955 and was a successful cyclist in his youth; he later claimed that he rode an average of 120 kilometres a day.^[10] He studied at Pryazovskyi State Technical University^[11] before going on to work at the large Ukrainian metal plant, Azovstal.^[10]

In 1995, Serhii Taruta left Azovstal for "Azovintex", a foreign trade company he co-founded. In December, 1995 he was appointed the CEO of the Industrial Union of Donbass Corporation (ISD Corporation), which he co-founded. Between 2001 and 2014, Taruta served as the Chairman of the Board of ISD Corporation.^{[12][failed verification]}

According to Forbes magazine, he ranked among the richest people in the world, with his estimated wealth being over 2.7 billion US dollars (2008).^[13][14]

In 1998 and 2002 Serhii Taruta was elected a member of the Donetsk Regional City Council for Telmanovsky electoral district, Donetsk Region.^{[citation needed]}

On 2 March 2014, amidst the 2014 pro-Russian conflict in Ukraine, acting President Olexander Turchynov appointed Taruta Governor of Donetsk Oblast.^[15] On 10 October 2014, President Petro Poroshenko removed him from office,^[16][17] replacing him with Oleksandr Kikhtenko.^[18][19]

In the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election, as an independent candidate Taruta won a single-member district in Mariupol with 60.00% of the vote and is thus a member of the Ukrainian parliament since 27 November 2014.^[20][1]

Taruta leads the Group for Inter-parliamentary Ties between Ukraine and Germany.^[21]

He is also the Head of the Sub-Committee for Protection of Historic and Cultural Heritage of the Parliamentary Committee for Culture and Spiritual Affairs.^[22]

Taruta is the co-chair of the Parliamentary Platform for the Future of Donbass, a body that aims to develop new legislative initiatives to help solve problems related to the reintegration of occupied territories of the region.^[23]

He is the author of the Three Pillars peace plan for Donbass,^[24] and also proposed the creation of the Vienna Format for Donbass peace talks.^[25]

Taruta led the group of developers of Sustainable Development Doctrine Ukraine 2030.^[26]

Serhii Taruta is a founder of the political party "Osnova".^[27][28]

On 22 September 2018, Osnova nominated Taruta as the party's candidate for the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election.^[29] On 16 March (2 weeks and one day before the election) Taruta pledged his campaign-team would support fellow candidate Yulia Tymoshenko's campaign efforts.^[30] However, his name was not taken of the ballot.^[30] (7 March was the last day when candidates could withdraw their names from the ballot.^[31])

In the July 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election Taruta was placed second on the party list of Fatherland.^[32] He was elected to parliament.^[33]

Serhii Taruta is married with two daughters.^[34]

Taruta is a prolific antiquities' collector.^[35][36]

Serhii Taruta was conferred the Order for the Service to Homeland of III (2006) and II degrees (2009), as well as the Order of St. Ann, II degree.^{[citation needed]}