Raykovych was born on 7 April 1956 in
Soviet-occupied Tallinn,
Estonia. His paternal grandfather comes from the village of Berezovka,
Dolynska Raion (now part of the
Kropyvnytskyi Raion of
Ukraine). He participated in
World War I, until repressed in 1937. Andriy's father, Pavlo, is a participant in
World War II, who remained after the end of the war to serve in Tallinn. In
Estonia, he met his future wife, who was according to the
Soviet nationality law Russian by nationality. (All citizens of the USSR were also citizens of an SSR (
Soviet Socialist Republic), and all citizens of the SSRs were also citizens of the USSR.) After the end of his service, his father worked as a crankshaft grinder, and his mother worked as a kindergarten teacher. Later, the family moved to the city of
Dolynska, where Andriy graduated from high school. He began his career in 1977, becoming an electrician at the Budindustriya plant in
Kirovohrad. After that, he served in the Soviet army for two years. In 1982, he graduated from the Kirovohrad Institute of Agricultural Engineering with a degree in power supply for industrial enterprises. In 1997, he became one of the co-founders of the Kirovograd regional branch of the
People's Party of Ukraine. In the
1998 parliamentary elections, Raykovych ran on the list of the People's Party (No. 175), but was not elected. Four years later, he again unsuccessfully
ran for the Ukrainian national parliament Verkhovna Rada from the bloc "
For United Ukraine!". In the
2006 Ukrainian local elections, he became a member of the
Kirovohrad Oblast Council of the 5th convocation. In the same year, he unsuccessfully ran in the
2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election. In the
early parliamentary elections of the following year, Raykovych was also included in the list of the People's Party, but was not again elected. In the
2010 Ukrainian local elections, he was reelected as a member of the Kirovohrad Oblast Council. He was a member of the standing committee on budget, financial activities and socio-economic development. He was sworn to office on 27 November. The city was renamed to Kropyvnytskyi in 2016. During the
2020 local elections, Raykovych once again decided to run for the mayor's seat, running from the
Proposition party. On 7 March 2022, by decree of the President of Ukraine
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Raykovych was appointed
Governor of Kirovohrad Oblast. ==References==