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Oleksiy Zhuravko
Oleksiy Zhuravko
Олексій Журавко
	Zhuravko in 2019
Member of the Verkhovna Rada
	In office; 25 May 2006 – 12 December 2012
Personal details
Born	Oleksiy Valeriyovych Zhuravko; 21 April 1974; Zhovti Vody, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, USSR
Died	25 September 2022 (aged 48); Kherson, Ukraine
Citizenship	Soviet Union (1974–1991); Ukraine (1991–2022) ; Russia (2022)
Political party	For United Ukraine! (2002); Party of Regions (2006–2022); United Russia (2022)
Spouse	Anzhela
Children	1
Alma mater	Kherson State University
Awards	Order of Merit (2000, 2004)

Oleksiy Valeriyovych Zhuravko (Ukrainian: Олексій Валерійович Журавко, Russian: Алексей Валерьевич Журавко; 21 April 1974 – 25 September 2022) was a Ukrainian and Russian politician who was a member of Ukraine's national parliament Verkhovna Rada from 2006 to 2012.^[1] He was a member of the pro-Russian Party of Regions from 2006.^[1] Zhuravko moved to Russia in 2015.^[1] He acquired Russian citizenship and joined the United Russia party in July 2022.^[2] He died in September 2022 in a missile attack in Kherson during the Ukrainian southern counteroffensive.^[1]

Early life and education

Born on 21 April 1974 in Zhovti Vody, Zhuravko lived in an orphanage from 1974 to 1978.^[3]^[4] In 1978, he moved to a boarding school in Tsiurupynsk where he lived until 1990.^[3] From 1990 until his return to Tsiurupynsk in 1993, Zhuravko had his vocational education in a boarding school in Luhansk.^[3]

Beginning in 1997, Zhuravko started several companies aimed at the disabled in Ukraine in Tsiurupynsk.^[5]^[3] In 2007, Zhuravko completed his education at the Kherson State University, majoring in economic theory.^[5] The same year, Zhuravko and his wife, Anzhela (born 1986), had a daughter.^[3]

Political career

Zhuravko failed to be elected in the 2002 Ukrainian parliamentary election as a candidate of For United Ukraine! in Kherson Oblast's electoral district 183.^[4]

In 2004, Zhuravko became chairman or the Union of Public Organizations "Confederation of Public Organizations of Disabled People of Ukraine."^[5] Zhuravko was awarded the Ukrainian Order of Merit twice.^[3] Third Class in 2000 and Second Class in 2004.^[3] In the 2006 and 2007 parliamentary election Zhuravko was elected to the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's national parliament) for the Party of Regions.^[4] In 2006, he was placed 118th on the party list, and the following year he dropped 22 places.^[3]

In the 2012 parliamentary election, Zhuravko again failed to be elected; this time as a Party of Regions candidate in electoral district 186 (also located in Kherson Oblast).^[4]^[6] On 17 April 2013, Zhuravko was appointed Government Commissioner for the Rights of the Disabled.^[5] This position was abolished on 5 March 2014.^[5]

Zhuravko moved to Russia in 2015.^[1] On 21 February 2015, he attended an anti-Euromaidan rally/commemoration in Moscow.^[7] In October 2015, Zhuravko was reportedly "hiding from Ukrainian authorities" and openly supporting separatism.^[8] In December 2015, Zhuravko's title of honorary citizen of Tsiurupynsk was removed.^[9] In January 2018, a pre-trial investigation was started into his alleged financing of the Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic quasi-states proclaimed within the territory of Ukraine.^[10]

Zhuravko acquired Russian citizenship and joined the United Russia party in July 2022.^[2] Following the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, he returned to Russian occupied Kherson in late April 2022.^[11] On 22 September 2022, Zhuravko published a video in which he cast his vote in Kherson at the 2022 annexation referendums.^[4] He stated that the Kherson Oblast's (Russian) occupation was the region's "liberation from Ukrainian nationalists."^[4] Zhuravko called on Russia "to complete the special operation and reach the western borders of Ukraine in order to liberate the country from the nationalists."^[4] He became wanted by the Security Service of Ukraine and was suspected of actions "aimed at violently changing or overthrowing the constitutional order or seizing state power".^[4] Zhuravko was killed on 25 September 2022, during the Ukrainian southern counteroffensive, in a missile strike on Kherson which pro-Kremlin authorities blamed on Ukraine.^[12]^[4]