| Yuriy Kostenko | |
| Native Name Lang: | uk |
| Office: | Minister of Natural Environment Protection |
| Term Start: | 13 October 1992 |
| Term End: | May 1998 |
| President: |
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| Primeminister: | |
| Predecessor: | Yuriy Shcherbak |
| Successor: | Vasyl Shevchuk |
| Office1: | People's Deputy of Ukraine |
| Termstart1: | 23 November 2007 |
| Termend1: | 12 December 2012 |
| Constituency1: | NUNS, No. 16 |
| Termstart2: | 15 May 1990 |
| Termend2: | 25 May 2006 |
| Constituency2: |
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| Predecessor2: | Position established |
| Birth Date: | 12 June 1951 |
| Birth Place: | Nova Obodivka, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine) |
| Party: | People's Movement of Ukraine (1989–1999) |
| Alma Mater: | Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic National University |
Yuriy Ivanovych Kostenko (Ukrainian: Юрій Іванович Костенко; born 6 December 1951[1]) is a Ukrainian politician and leader of the Ukrainian People's Party.[2]
Kostenko holds a Ph.D. from the Zaporizhzhia Polytechnic National University. In 1989, he became one of the founders of People's Movement of Ukraine (Rukh) and served as a People's Deputy of Ukraine from 1990 to 2006 and from 2007 to 2012,[3] [4] and in 2002 as a member of Our Ukraine.[5] From 1992 to 1998, he served as the minister of environmental protection.[3] Kostenko was a candidate at the 1999 Ukrainian presidential election where he received 2.17% of votes.[2] Kostenko was involved in Ukraine’s nuclear disarmament, which he later regretted, and in dealing with the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster.[6]
Before the 2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election Kostenko initiated the creation of a coalition known as Ukrainian National Bloc of Kostenko and Plyushch who has acquired 1.9% of the vote and did not exceed the 3% threshold of the election.
In July 2007 Kostenko and Ivan Plyushch joined together the bloc Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc and both got re-elected as People's Deputy of Ukraine. Unlike many allies of Yushchenko, Kostenko did not defect from the Our Ukraine grouping in parliament.[6]
Kostenko was a candidate in the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election, his party program included recognizing Ukrainian Insurgent Army veterans,[6] during the election, he received 0.22% of the votes.[7]
Kostenko's Ukrainian People's Party competed on one single party under "umbrella" party Our Ukraine in the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election, together with Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists; this list won 1.11% of the national votes and no constituencies, and thus failed to win parliamentary representation.[8] [9] Kostenko was second the election list of Our Ukraine.[10] He did not participate in the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election.[11]