Valeriy Davydenko

Born in Nosivka Chernihiv Oblast in 1973, Davydenko graduated from the National University of Food Technologies with a degree in mechanical engineering of food production equipment.[1]

From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, he worked as an insurance specialist.[1] From 2004 to 2013, Davydenko was General Director of an agricultural company which was founded in 2003 by Davydenko's mother and the future Minister of Finance of Ukraine, Yuriy Kolobov.[1] In 2020, fellow former member of parliament Andriy Verevskyi also had a stake in this company.[1] Davydenko, Kolobov and member of parliament Borys Prykhodko were former owners of the bankrupt and liquidated Terra Bank.[1]

In May 2013, Davydenko was appointed Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food in the second Azarov government (Yuriy Kolobov was Minister of Finance in this government).[1] He was fired in March 2014 after the 2014 Ukrainian revolution that was the end of the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych.[1]

Davydenko was first elected to the Ukrainian parliament in the 2014 parliamentary election for the party Zastup.[5][6] He won the party's only seat when as an unaffiliated candidate in the 208th single-member constituency located in Bakhmach.[7] He won with 38.86% of the vote.[7] During the parliamentary campaign, public observers stated they had allegedly recorded voter bribery for Davydenko.[1] Zastup claimed this had been a provocation.[1] Davydenko later joined the parliamentary faction of Petro Poroshenko Bloc.[8] Davydenko was re-elected, after again a win in the 208th constituency (with 37.43% of the vote) but this time as an independent candidate, in the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election.[9] A few months before his death, Davydenko was co-chairman of the political party Our Land.[1] After the 2019 parliamentary election, Davydenko joined the Trust (parliamentary group) faction.[1]

Davydenko and his wife had two daughters.[1] Davydenko was found shot dead in the bathroom of his office in Kyiv on 23 May 2020.[3]

On 25 October 2020 Anatoliy Hunko from Servant of the People won the early election, called to replace Davydenko, in constituency 208 with 34.10%.[10] Davydenko's wife Lyudmyla took 3rd place in the election with 26.68% of the votes.[11][10]