Oleksandr Serhiiovych Donii ( uk, Олекса́ндр Сергі́йович Доні́й; born 18 August 1969) is a Ukrainian activist and politician who served as a People's Deputy of Ukraine from 2007 to 2014, first on the proportional representation list of Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc and later from Ukraine's 88th electoral district in

Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast ( uk, Іва́но-Франкі́вська о́бласть, translit=Ivano-Frankivska oblast), also referred to as Ivano-Frankivshchyna ( uk, Іва́но-Франкі́вщина), is an administrative divisions of Ukrain ...

. Prior to his election, Donii was one of the leaders of the 1990

Revolution on Granite The Revolution on Granite ( uk, Революція на граніті, translit=Revoliutsiia na hraniti) was a student-led protest campaign that took place primarily in Kyiv and Western Ukraine in October 1990.Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...

Early life and Revolution on Granite

Oleksandr Serhiiovych Donii was born on 18 August 1969, in the Ukrainian capital of

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

. He first acquired a sense of Ukrainian identity in school, and he later recounted that he hoped to learn Ukrainian while in university. While he was a student at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in the late 1980s, Donii began organising students in support of Ukrainian

Soviet dissidents Soviet dissidents were people who disagreed with certain features of Soviet ideology or with its entirety and who were willing to speak out against them. The term ''dissident'' was used in the Soviet Union in the period from the mid-1960s until t ...

and the

1989–1991 Ukrainian revolution From the formal establishment of the People's Movement of Ukraine on 1 July 1989 to the formalisation of the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine via 1991 Ukrainian independence referendum, referendum on 1 December 1991, a non-violent protes ...

. Following the

1990 Ukrainian Supreme Soviet election The first relatively free election to the Supreme Soviet (Rada) held in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Ukrainian SSR) took place in several stages, from March 4 to March 18, 1990. The elections were held to elect deputies to the republ ...

, Donii was the leader of a series of protests seeking the resignation of

Vitaliy Masol Vitaliy Andriyovych Masol ( uk, Віталій Андрійович Масол; 14 November 1928 – 21 September 2018) was a Soviet-Ukrainian politician who served as leader of Ukraine on two occasions. He held various posts in the Ukrainian So ...

. Known as the

Leonid Kravchuk Leonid Makarovych Kravchuk ( uk, Леонід Макарович Кравчук; 10 January 1934 – 10 May 2022) was a Ukrainian politician and the first president of Ukraine, serving from 5 December 1991 until 19 July 1994. In 1992, he signed ...

, the leader of Ukraine's communists. As the head of the protests' Central Ukrainian branch, Donii was one of three formal leaders of the revolution, alongside (

Western Ukraine Western Ukraine or West Ukraine ( uk, Західна Україна, Zakhidna Ukraina or , ) is the territory of Ukraine linked to the former Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, which was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Austria ...

, based in

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

) and Oleh Barkov (

Eastern Ukraine Eastern Ukraine or east Ukraine ( uk, Східна Україна, Skhidna Ukrayina; russian: Восточная Украина, Vostochnaya Ukraina) is primarily the territory of Ukraine east of the Dnipro (or Dnieper) river, particularly Khark ...

, based in Dniprodzerzhinsk). Donii was appointed deputy chairman of the

People's Movement of Ukraine The People's Movement of Ukraine ( uk, Народний Рух України, Narodnyi Rukh Ukrayiny) is a Ukrainian political party and first opposition party in Soviet Ukraine. Often it is simply referred to as the Movement ( uk, Рух, Rukh ...

in 1990, a role he held until 1991. He was also co-leader of the Ukrainian Student Union from 1991 to 1992, and served as head of the Centre for Extreme Politics from 1992 to 1994.

Political career

Donii was elected to the Kyiv City Council in 1994. He was deputy head of the council's Committee on Humanitarian Issues. Taking an interest in cultural issues, Donii was leader of the Young Ukraine movement, as well as , a movement promoting urban culture. He participated in the 2004 Orange Revolution, and by 2005 was head of the electoral committee of the Socialist Party of Ukraine in the western

Lviv Oblast Lviv Oblast ( uk, Льві́вська о́бласть, translit=Lvivska oblast, ), also referred to as Lvivshchyna ( uk, Льві́вщина, ), ). The name of each oblast is a wikt:Appendix:Glossary#relational, relational adjective—in Englis ...

. Donii mulled a campaign for the

Lviv Oblast Council The Lviv Oblast Council or Lviv Regional Council ( uk, Львівська обласна рада) is the regional council (parliament) of the Lviv Oblast (region) located in western Ukraine. Legislative framework The Regional Council is a loc ...

, but ultimately decided to become a candidate for People's Deputy of Ukraine from the proportional representation list of the SPU. He was placed 99th on the party's list during the

2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

. During the election campaign, Donii pledged to reform the SPU into a "patriotic centre-left structure", and he credited the

2004 Ukrainian presidential election Presidential elections were held in Ukraine on 31 October, 21 November and 26 December 2004. The election was the fourth presidential election to take place in Ukraine following independence from the Soviet Union. The last stages of the election ...

, during which the SPU had gathered a greater portion of the vote than the

Communist Party of Ukraine The Communist Party of Ukraine, Abbreviation: KPU, from Ukrainian and Russian "" is a banned political party in Ukraine. It was founded in 1993 as the successor to the Soviet-era Communist Party of Ukraine which was banned in 1991 (accord ...

for the first time in their history, as placing the party as leaders of the Ukrainian left. He was ultimately not elected, as the SPU won only 33 seats, and returned to work as a political scientist. Following the

2006 Ukrainian political crisis The 2006 Parliamentary crisis in Ukraine started in March 2006 as a result of inconclusive parliamentary elections, and ended on 3 August 2006 with Viktor Yanukovych (as part of the Alliance of National Unity) being chosen as a Prime Minister to ...

, in which SPU leader Oleksandr Moroz formed an alliance with 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 ...

, Donii critically compared him to Ivan the Fool.

People's Deputy of Ukraine

Donii was again a candidate in the

2007 Ukrainian parliamentary election Early parliamentary elections in Ukraine took place on 30 September 2007. The date of the election was determined following agreement between the President Viktor Yushchenko, the Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and the Chairman of the Verkhovna ...

, this time from the Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc (NUNS). During the campaign, Donii continued to profess his support for a left-wing Ukrainian nationalist party. He was successfully elected as part of the Civil Movement "People's Self-Defense", which was a member of NUNS, though he was an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

at the time. He was head of the Verkhovna Rada subcommittee on humanitarian education, science, and information. Donii expressed support for the establishment of NUNS as an ideological party, rather than one based around the personal appeal of President Viktor Yushchenko. He called for members of the bloc who were ideologically close to the Party of Regions to be expelled, and additionally criticised the government for favouring

Ivan Plyushch Ivan Stepanovych Plyushch ( uk, Іван Степанович Плющ; September 11, 1941 – June 25, 2014) was a Ukrainian politician. He thrice served as the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament of Ukraine), from July 9 to July 23, 1990 ...

as the bloc's candidate for Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada rather than

Vyacheslav Kyrylenko Vyacheslav Anatoliiovych Kyrylenko ( uk, В'ячеслав Анатолійович Кириленко) is a Ukrainian politician; former Minister of Labor and Social Policy, Vice Prime Minister, former party leader of Our Ukraine and former ...

. Donii was re-elected as a People's Deputy during the

2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election The Ukrainian parliamentary election of 2012 took place on 28 October 2012.Ukraine's 88th electoral district (located in and around

Kolomyia Kolomyia, formerly known as Kolomea ( ua, Коломия, Kolomyja, ; pl, Kołomyja; german: Kolomea; ro, Colomeea; yi, ), is a city located on the Prut River in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast (province), in western Ukraine. It serves as the admi ...

) as an independent candidate with 43.95% of the vote, defeating six other candidates. He partook in

Euromaidan Euromaidan (; uk, Євромайдан, translit=Yevromaidan, lit=Euro Square, ), or the Maidan Uprising, was a wave of Political demonstration, demonstrations and civil unrest in Ukraine, which began on 21 November 2013 with large protes ...

and described himself as affiliated with more radical activists who were suspicious of

Petro Poroshenko Petro Oleksiyovych Poroshenko ( uk, Петро́ Олексі́йович Пороше́нко, ; born 26 September 1965) is a Ukrainian businessman and politician who served as the fifth president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. Poroshenko ser ...

, saying "people died uring Euromaidanso that

Roshen Roshen Confectionery Corporation ( uk, Кондитерська корпорація «Роше́н», Kondyterska korporatsiya "Roshen") is a Ukrainian confectionery manufacturing group. It operates facilities in the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv, ...

could open a new store".

Kharkiv Pact beating

During a vote on the 2010

Kharkiv Pact The Agreement between Ukraine and Russia on the Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine, widely referred to as the Kharkiv Pact ( ua, Харківський пакт) or Kharkov Accords (russian: Харьковские соглашения), was a treaty betw ...

in the Verkhovna Rada, a significant fight broke out between deputies of NUNS and the Party of Regions. During the fight, Donii was beaten by six Party of Regions deputies. He was hospitalised following the beating, and he demanded that NUNS file a lawsuit against the Party of Regions for assault. NUNS ultimately did not file a lawsuit, something Donii credited in 2021 to a lack of willpower on the bloc's behalf to actually fight the Party of Regions.

Post-People's Deputy career

During 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.People's Front candidate Yurii Tymoshenko, who won 29.32% of the vote compared to Donii's 16.00%. In 2024 Donii criticised President

Volodymyr Zelenskyy Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy, ; russian: Владимир Александрович Зеленский, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Zelenskyy, (born 25 January 1978; also transliterated as Zelensky or Zelenskiy) is a Ukrainian politicia ...

for having denied that Russia was planning to invade Ukraine, and additionally claimed that Western nations were preparing to surrender Ukrainian territory to Russia, basing his argument on the evacuation of embassies from Kyiv.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Donii, Oles 1969 births Living people Sixth convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada Seventh convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada Activists from Kyiv People of the Euromaidan People of the Orange Revolution People of the Revolution on Granite People's Movement of Ukraine politicians People's Self-Defense Political Party politicians Politicians from Kyiv Socialist Party of Ukraine politicians Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Historical faculty alumni Ukrainian anti-communists Ukrainian democracy activists Ukrainian independence activists Ukrainian nationalists Ukrainian social democrats