Ruslan Koshulynskyi
Ruslan Koshulynskyi (born 9 September 1969) is a Ukrainian politician, soldier and former Member of Parliament who served as the 9th Deputy Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada (2012-2014). He is also the Deputy Leader of Svoboda party.
Early life and education
Koshulynskyi was born in Lviv to Victor Kosulynskyi and Natalia Koshulynska (née Etkind). He attended the Lviv Sports Boarding School, graduating in 1986. Next year he was conscripted to the Soviet army and served in East Germany for 2 years. After the army service he enrolled to the Lviv Cooperative College of Economics and Law, which he completed in 1991. He then moved to the Kolomyia region where he found work as production manager in a local restaurant. In 1995 he travelled to Krasnoyarsk Krai to work at a gold mining company for a year. Upon his return to Lviv in 1996 he became involved in politics and joined the Svoboda party. In early 2000s he took up post-secondary studies again at the Ternopil National Economic University and graduated with a bachelor's degree in law in 2006.
Political life
In August 2008, Koshulynsky was appointed the deputy head of the Svoboda party. In November 2010 he became the leader of the Svoboda party caucus at the Lviv City Council, as well as the member of the Council's standing committee on finance and budgetary planning.
He was Svoboda's campaign manager during its national breakthrough at the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election. The Parliament elected him the Deputy Speaker by absolute majority of the vote.[1][2] During his time in office he co-chaired the Poland-Ukraine interparliamentary group.[3] Koshulynsky actively supported the 2013-2014 demonstrations against the regime of president Viktor Yanukovych and was one of a handful of parliamentary opposition members who remained with the protesters during the police gunfire in February 2014. In March 2014 he stated that the decision to hold Crimea referendum was unconstitutional, citing the absence of Ukrainian legislative framework on local referendums.[4]
In Ukraine's 2014 snap parliamentary election Koshulynskyi ran 2nd on the party list, but the party ended up 0.29% short of the minimum required 5% national vote.[5][6]
On 25 October 2015 he unsuccessfully ran for Lviv city mayor, losing in the second round to the incumbent Andriy Sadovyi with 36.8% of the vote.[7]
He was elected as member of the Lviv Oblast Council in the 2015 election.
He believes that Ukraine's government can finance the armed forces by levying increased war tax on the oligarchs.[8]
On 19 November 2018 Svoboda and fellow Ukrainian nationalist political organizations Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists, Right Sector and C14 endorsed Koshulynskyi candidacy in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election.[9] In the election he received 1.6% of the votes.[10]
In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election Koshulynskyi was placed fifth on the joined list of Svoboda with National Corps, the Governmental Initiative of Yarosh and Right Sector.[11] But in the election they won 2.15% of the votes, less than half if the 5% election threshold, and thus no parliamentary seats via the national party list.[12]
Donbas War assignment
During Ukraine's 2015 mobilization effort Koshulynskyi joined the artillery troops of the Ukrainian Ground Forces as Gun Commander.[13] After undergoing training at the International Peacekeeping and Security Centre in Yavoriv, he was deployed to the war zone in the Luhansk region of east Ukraine. Koshulynskyi served as Senior Sergeant during his combat duty.
Personal life
Koshulynskyi is currently married to his wife Mariia Koshulynska, with whom he has 3 children.
References
- Koshulynsky closes parliament meeting, next one to take place on August 12, Interfax-Ukraine (28 July 2014)
- Baumann, Gabriele (February 1, 2013). "Ukraine After the Parliamentary Elections" (PDF). KAS International Reports.
By the agreement of the three opposition parties, the Svoboda deputy Ruslan Koshulinsky was proposed for the post of deputy parliamentary speaker, and elected with the approval of 305 deputies.
- "Ministers from Poland, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Denmark: Ukraine faces a choice". mfa.gov.pl. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
- "Ruslan Koshulynskyi: Referendum in Crimea is Unlawful and Unconstitutional | UACRISIS.ORG". [:en]Ukraine crisis media center[:ua]Український кризовий медіа-центр[:fr]Ukraine crisis media center[:de]Ukrainisches Krisen-Medienzentrum[:ru]Украинский кризисный медиа-центр[:es]Ukraine crisis media center[:it]Ukraine crisis media center[:pt]Ukraine crisis media center[:]. 2014-03-07. Retrieved 2017-05-15.
- Poroshenko Bloc to have greatest number of seats in parliament Archived 2014-11-10 at the Wayback Machine, Ukrainian Television and Radio (8 November 2014)
People's Front 0.33% ahead of Poroshenko Bloc with all ballots counted in Ukraine elections - CEC, Interfax-Ukraine (8 November 2014)
Poroshenko Bloc to get 132 seats in parliament - CEC, Interfax-Ukraine (8 November 2014) - (in Ukrainian) Party list All-Ukrainian Union "Freedom", Ukrayinska Pravda (3 October 2014)
- "SUMMARY: Klitschko in the lead of Kyiv mayoral election, Filatov likely to become Dnipropetrovsk mayor – exit polls". Interfax-Ukraine. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
- "Fat cats must pay war tax – Ruslan Koshulynsky". zik.ua. Retrieved 2018-10-18.
- (in Ukrainian) The nationalists have been identified with a presidential candidate, Ukrayinska Pravda (19 November 2018)
- Zelenskiy wins first round but that’s not the surprise, Atlantic Council (4 April 2019)
- https://m.glavcom.ua/country/politics/yarosh-tyagnibok-bileckiy-taki-sformuvali-jediniy-spisok-na-vibori-600508.html
- CEC counts 100 percent of vote in Ukraine's parliamentary elections, Ukrinform (26 July 2019)
(in Russian) Results of the extraordinary elections of the People's Deputies of Ukraine 2019, Ukrayinska Pravda (21 July 2019) - Екс-віце-спікер і двоє колишніх депутатів-«свободівців» – мобілізовані і йдуть воювати [Ex-Deputy Speaker and two former MPs drafted to fight in the war]. Vgolos (in Ukrainian). February 5, 2015.