Lesia Vasylenko

Lesia Volodymyrivna Vasylenko (Ukrainian: Леся Володимирівна Василенко) is a Ukrainian lawyer and politician serving as a People's Deputy of Ukraine in the 9th Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada. Vasylenko is a member of the Ukrainian permanent delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union's Bureau of Women Parliamentarians. She is the founder of Legal Hundred, a human rights non-governmental organization that provides assistance to servicemen and veterans.

Lesia Vasylenko
Леся Василенко
Ukrainian parliamentarian Lesia Vasylenko
People's Deputy of Ukraine
Assumed office
29 August 2019
Personal details
Born
Lesia Volodymyrivna Vasylenko

(1987-03-31) 31 March 1987[1]
Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Political partyHolos (2019–present)
Children3
Parent
Alma materTaras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv;
University College London
OccupationLawyer, politician

Early life and education

Vasylenko was born in Kyiv to Volodymyr Vasylenko, a human rights activist.[2] She completed a master's degree in international law at the Institute of International Relations of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and an LL.M. at University College London.[2]

Career

Vasylenko worked as a corporate lawyer.[2] At the beginning of the Euromaidan revolution in 2013, she protested frequently at the Maidan Nezalezhnosti.[2] After visiting a hospital during the war in Donbas in June 2014, Vasylenko learned that wounded soldiers were unaware of their rights to compensation.[2] Many of the soldiers she spoke with struggled to pay for their medical treatments. In January 2015, she founded Legal Hundred, a human rights non-governmental organization that provides assistance to servicemen and veterans.[3][2] In 2016, Vasylenko was named by the Kyiv Post as one of the top 30 young under-30 leaders.[4]

In June 2019, it was announced that Vasylenko and Oleksandra Ustinova would be joining the Holos party.[5] In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Vasylenko was elected a People's Deputy of Ukraine of the 9th Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada.[6][7][8] She is a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Environmental Policy and Nature Management.[9] Vasylenko is a member of the permanent delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.[10] Vasylenko is a member of the Ukrainian parliamentary delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union[11] where she serves as president of its Bureau of Women Parliamentarians.[12] She is co-chair of the interparliamentary relations group to the United Kingdom.[13] On 12 December 2019, Vasylenko joined Humane country, an inter-factional association to promote humanistic values and prevent cruelty to animals.[14]

During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Vasylenko armed herself with several guns to protect her family.[15] She said on 26 February 2022 that the Russian military was targeting Ukrainian civilians to make the country surrender.[16] On 1 March, Vasylenko evacuated her three children from her home in Kyiv.[15] On 4 March, she said the invasion was the start of World War III.[17]

On 26 December 2022, Vasylenko published a portrait of a crying child on Twitter[18] who she described as "Marc, 8 yo, just survived a #russia artillery attack". The tweet was later debunked, as the picture had been used as early as 2013 on the cover of the book El Hombre en el Olvido, the Spanish version of Christina McKenna's bestseller The Misremembered Man.[19]

References
  1. "Василенко Леся Володимирівна" [Vasylenko Lesia Volodymyrivna]. lb.ua (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 25 March 2022. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
  2. Romanenko, Maria (1 December 2016). "Lesia Vasylenko: NGO gives free legal aid to soldiers, and it all started with a trip to a military hospital - Dec. 01, 2016". KyivPost. Archived from the original on 25 December 2017. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  3. Sokolenko, Natalia; Tuzov, Dmytro. "The number of appeals of anti-terrorist operation soldiers and their families concerning protection of the rights grows, - Lesya Vasylenko". Hromadske (in Ukrainian).{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. Yakutenko, Anna (2 December 2016). "Kyiv Post awards Top 30 Under 30 young leaders - Dec. 02, 2016". KyivPost. Archived from the original on 5 February 2018. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  5. "До партії Вакарчука приєднались правозахисниця та громадська активістка". 1NEWS.COM.UA (in Ukrainian). 7 June 2019. Archived from the original on 8 June 2019. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  6. "Lesia Vasylenko". Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 26 February 2022. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  7. "Central Election Commission". Ukrainian Central Election Commission. Archived from the original on 11 March 2022. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  8. "Парламентські вибори 2019: хто пройшов у Верховну Раду України" [New Verkhovna Rada: who went to parliament]. 24 Канал (in Ukrainian). 28 August 2019. Archived from the original on 11 March 2022. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  9. "Verkhovna Rada Committee on Environmental Policy and Nature Management". Verkhovna Rada. Archived from the original on 29 January 2022. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  10. "Став відомий склад нової делегації України в ПАРЄ". European Pravda (in Ukrainian). 17 September 2019. Archived from the original on 18 September 2019. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  11. "Ukrainian parliamentary delegation took part in the 141st Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Belgrade". Archived from the original on 25 January 2022. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  12. "Bureau of Women Parliamentarians". Inter-Parliamentary Union. Archived from the original on 8 March 2022. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  13. "У Верховній Раді створено депутатську групу з міжпарламентських зв'язків зі Сполученим Королівством Великої Британії та Північної Ірландії" [A parliamentary group on interparliamentary relations with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has been established in the Verkhovna Rada]. Verkhovna Rada (in Ukrainian). 29 October 2019. Archived from the original on 4 December 2019.
  14. "Гуманна країна. У Раді створили міжфракційне об'єднання з метою захисту прав тварин". nv.ua (in Ukrainian). 12 December 2019. Archived from the original on 24 February 2022. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  15. Ali, Taz (2 March 2022). "MP says she has her gun ready as being armed is 'matter of survival' for women in Ukraine". inews.co.uk. Archived from the original on 9 March 2022. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  16. Lovett, Samuel (26 February 2022). "Russian forces have changed strategy to target civilians, says Ukrainian MP". The Independent. Archived from the original on 10 March 2022. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  17. Frei, Matt (4 March 2022). "'The world is already in World War Three', Ukrainian MP says". Channel 4 News. Archived from the original on 6 March 2022. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
  18. "The saddest part: there are no children in #Ukraine anymore. Only little humans with very grown up eyes, old even. Somewhat tired of a life yet unlived. Pictured: Marc, 8 yo, just survived a #russia artillery attack". @lesiavasylenko on Twitter. Archived from the original on 28 December 2022. Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  19. Puzhakkal, Dheeshma (28 December 2022). "Fact Check: This boy is not a Russia-Ukraine war survivor, Ukrainian MP shares years old and unrelated photo". India Today. Retrieved 29 December 2022.
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