After graduating from the Military Aviation College for Pilots in
Yeysk in 1986, he served in the
Soviet Armed Forces and the
Armed Forces of Russia until 1998. At first Yakymenko was stationed in
Choibalsan,
Mongolia until withdrawal of the Soviet troops. Later he was relocated to
Hvardiiske in
Crimea where in 1991-1998 he served in the Military Aviation Forces of
Black Sea Fleet (
Russian Federation). In 1997 Yakymenko graduated from the
Gagarin Air Force Academy. There is no information about Yakymenko ever receiving
Ukrainian citizenship. In 1998-99 he worked as militarized security for the Donetsk State Aviation Company "Donetsk – SAU" (SAU is an abbreviation for Eastern Aviation Lines). In his official biography Yakymenko claims that he worked in the
Security Service of Ukraine in 1999 to 2007 in leading positions, yet does not disclose in what exactly and without any details. On 10 January 2013 in an interview to
Gazeta in Ukrainian,
Valentyn Nalyvaichenko stated that nobody in the
Ukrainian parliament knows the real biography of the SBU director. In 2007-08 Yakymenko was an advisor for internal security for one of the companies belonging to
System Capital Management. From 2008 to 2010 the official biography of Yakymenko states that he worked part time without any contracts and the biography does not specify where and for whom Yakymenko was working. Soon after the election of
Viktor Yanukovych as
President of Ukraine in 2010, Yakymenko was appointed the head of SBU in
Sevastopol and a year later head of SBU in
Donetsk Oblast. During that time he was promoted to the rank of
Major General of the
Security Service of Ukraine. In 2012 Yakymenko was appointed the First Deputy Director of SBU and in 2013 Yanukovych appointed him the Director of
Security Service of Ukraine without properly introducing him to the
Ukrainian parliament. On February 19, 2014, on the SBU's website, Yakymenko announced that
Security Service of Ukraine and
Anti-Terrorist Center initiated an "anti-terrorist operation" against protesters of the
Euromaidan. On February 20, 2014, snipers and special assigned units of the
MVS and SBU appeared on the streets of
Kyiv. On February 22, 2014, the
Ukrainian parliament installed a parliamentary commissioner to check the SBU's activities,
Valentyn Nalyvaichenko who the next day announced that all leadership of
Security Service of Ukraine quit. On February 24, 2014
Ukrainian parliament officially relieved Yakymenko of his duties as a Director of
Security Service of Ukraine and on the proposition of the acting
President of Ukraine appointed Nalyvaichenko in his place. A few days after the February
2014 Ukrainian revolution, Yakymenko, along with about 15 former SBU top officials, surfaced in Russia. Yakymenko is wanted by the
General Prosecutor of Ukraine and is believed to be hiding in Russia. ==See also==