Olena Anatoliivna Bondarenko (née Kovalenko) ( uk, Олена Анатоліївна Бондаренко) is a Ukrainian journalist, a former People's Deputy of the

Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ( uk, Верхо́вна Ра́да Украї́ни, translit=, Verkhovna Rada Ukrainy, translation=Supreme Council of Ukraine, Ukrainian abbreviation ''ВРУ''), often simply Verkhovna Rada or just Rada, is the ...

, 1st Deputy Chairman of the Committee of Verkhovna Rada on freedom of speech and information; Head of Subcommittee of Television and Radio Broadcasting Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on freedom of speech and information. Member of the

Party of Regions The Party of Regions ( uk, Партія регіонів, Partiia rehioniv, ; russian: Партия регионов, Partiya regionov) was a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine formed in late 1997 that then grew to be the biggest party of Uk ...

grouping between May 2006 and 2014. In 2012 she was re-elected into parliament on the party list of Party of Regions.Список депутатів нової Верховної Ради

Ukrayinska Pravda ''Ukrainska Pravda'' ( uk, Українська правда, lit=Ukrainian Truth) is a Ukrainian online newspaper founded by Georgiy Gongadze on 16 April 2000 (the day of the Ukrainian constitutional referendum). Published mainly in Ukraini ...

(11 November 2012) Bondarenko did not participate in the

2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election Snap elections to the Verkhovna Rada took place on 26 October 2014. Petro Poroshenko, the President of Ukraine, had pressed for early parliamentary elections since his victory in the presidential election in May.Alphabetical Index of candidates in 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election

Central Election Commission (Ukraine) The Central Election Commission of Ukraine ( uk, Центральна виборча комісія України, commonly abbreviated in Ukrainian as ЦВК (''Tse-Ve-Ka''); sometimes referred to as the Central Electoral Commission of Ukrai ...

. And in the

2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election Snap elections to the Ukrainian parliament were held on 21 July 2019. Originally scheduled to be held at the end of October, these elections were brought forward after newly inaugurated President of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dissolv ...

, she lost in

Mykolayiv Oblast Mykolaiv Oblast ( uk, Микола́ївська о́бласть, translit=Mykoláyivsʹka óblastʹ, ), also referred to as Mykolaivshchyna ( uk, Микола́ївщина, Mykoláivshchyna, ) is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast ...

’s District 131, with 8% of the votes.

Biography

Bondarenko was born on 26 May 1974, in

Makiivka Makiivka ( uk, Макіївка, Makíyivka, ; russian: Макеевка, Makeyevka, ), formerly Dmytriivsk, is an industrial city in Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine. Located from the capital Donetsk, the two cities are practically a conurbati ...

, Donetsk oblast', her father is a miner, and her mother is a nurse.

Education

In 1991, Bondarenko entered

Donetsk State University Vasyl' Stus Donetsk National University (Vasyl' Stus DonNU) ( uk, Донецький національний університет імені Василя Стуса, ''Donets’kyi Natsional’nyi Universytet''; russian: Донецкий на ...

, Department of History. When at the third year, she entered the Faculty of related and complementary disciplines, with a qualification in journalism. In 1996, she graduated from both faculties.
In 2004, Olena Bondarenko graduated from the Department of Administrative Management,

Donetsk State Academy of Management Donetsk State University of Management ( uk, Донецький державний університет управління) is a Ukraine, Ukrainian University founded in 1992 as the Donetsk State Academy of Management (with 31 graduates) an ...

Career

* 1994-1995 - writer for the weekly "Donetsk News" * 1995-1998 - editor of the information service at "Ukraine" TV channel * 1998 - journalist at "Inter-Seal" TV channel, Donetsk regional office of "Inter" TV channel During this time she implemented two of her own projects: the weekly review of political activities in the region "Labyrinths Of Politics" and "Political Chronicles". * 1998-2001 - editor of the information service at "New Donbass" TV channel * April - September 2001 - Director of Communications at Donetsk Regional Organization of Party of Greens * 2002-2006 - Director of press service of

Donetsk Regional Council The Donetsk Oblast Council ( uk, Донецька обласна рада) is the regional oblast council (parliament) of the Donetsk Oblast (province) located in eastern Ukraine. In Ukraine Oblast Council members are elected for five year terms ...

Co-working with

Borys Kolesnikov Borys Viktorovych Kolesnikov ( uk, Борис Вікторович Колесніков, born October 25, 1962) is the leader of the political party Ukraine is Our Home. He is the former secretary of the Party of Regions' presidium, former people ...

, who in 2003 headed the Donetsk regional branch of Party of Regions, predetermined further political career of Bondarenko. She not only became the personal media consultant for Boris Kolesnikov, but also was one of the key players in the team. She managed to create an effective press service and ensure smooth communication between People's Deputies and Kolesnikov and the media.

Activities related to Verkhovna Rada

* May 2005-April 2006 - assistant-consultant to the People's Deputy of Ukraine * May 2006-November 2007 - People's Deputy of the 5th convocation of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, elected from the Party of Regions, No. 125 in the list. At that time she was the 1st Vice-Chairman of the Committee on freedom of speech and information (since July 2006); Chairman of the Subcommittee of the Advertising Committee on freedom of speech and information (since July 2006), fraction member of the Party of Regions (since May 2006). Bondarenko was a member of the temporary investigatory commission to investigate the death of Georgy Gongadze and to check facts of corruption and abuse of power by some Ministry of Internal Affairs officers. Her major legislative initiatives related to basic laws: the law on advertising, the law on television and radio, and the law about the National Council on Television and Radio. Bondarenko criticized the National Council on public as saw the acts of abuses and illegal actions in its activities, and even initiated a special Verkhovna Rada inquiry commission. * since November 2007 - People's Deputy of the 6th convocation of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, elected from the Party of Regions, No. 146 in the list. During parliamentary elections in 2007, Bondarenko led the Department of Communications of the central campaign office of the Party of Regions. Since December 2007 she's been the member of the Committee on freedom of speech and information, Party of Regions faction member since November 2007, member of Ukrainian National Union of Journalists, member of the Party of Regions. In 2012, she was re-elected into parliament on the party list of Party of Regions. Bondarenko did not participate in the

, she lost in

’s District 131, with 8% of the votes.

Criticism

In January 2014, a deleted Facebook comment of

Myroslava Gongadze Myroslava Gongadze ( uk, Миросла́ва Володи́мирівна Ґонґа́дзе, born 19 June 1972) is a Ukrainian journalist currently living in the United States. Her husband, journalist Georgiy Gongadze, was abducted and murdered ...

claimed she was banned from entering the United States again. Bondarenko has been the topic of increased concern with regards to human rights in Ukraine. After a special session of parliament on January 29, 2014, Bondarenko agreed to an interview during which activists gathered around her showing various pictures of journalists who were either beaten or murdered by police during the protests in Kiev. After being asked whether she was saddened by the violence, Bondarenko coldly responded that journalist are in a zone of war and quickly left the room. On 10 September 2014, she wrote a testimonial about the alarming situation of human rights of the opposition in Ukraine

Family

* husband Andriy Bondarenko (b. 1969) was in 2010-2012 the Vice-Minister of Ukraine of Emergencies * daughter Polina (b. 1999) and son Mikhail (born in 2010)/(website has automatic

Google Translate Google Translate is a multilingual neural machine translation service developed by Google to translate text, documents and websites from one language into another. It offers a website interface, a mobile app for Android and iOS, and an API t ...

option)''
Short bio
LIGA

References

External links

Olena Bondarenko's profile at the official Verkhovna Rada web portal