In 2003, Leschenko graduated the Institute of Journalism at the
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. His career in journalism began in 2000 after the probation at the news program
Reporter on the
Novyi Kanal channel chaired by
Andriy Shevchenko. In September 2000, he became a correspondent of the online version of the newspaper
Ukrainska Pravda. He continued working at the regional news department of "
Novyi Kanal" until Spring 2001 while working for
Ukrainska Pravda. In March 2001 he quit working for
Novyi Kanal. In 2002 he became deputy editor-in-chief of the
Ukrainska Pravda. Leschenko is famous for his
investigative journalism on
corruption in Ukrainian politics. In 2010 he joined the movement "Stop Tsenzuri!" ("Stop Censorship!") aimed for the protection of free speech, prevention of censorship and obstruction of journalism in Ukraine. In 2012, Leschenko joined a
civil movement "Chesno" aiming for transparency and accountability of government officials. In 2012 he studied in the
United Kingdom as a part of a scholarship program of John Smith Fellowship. In 2013–2014 he undertook an internship at the
National Endowment for Democracy in
Washington D.C. through the
Reagan–Fascell Democracy Fellowship. In 2013 he took part in the Draper Hills Summer Fellowship at
Stanford University in the United States. In 2014, Leschenko was elected a people's deputy to the
8th Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada with the party
Petro Poroshenko Bloc "Solidarity". He chaired a subcommittee on International Partnership and Anticorruption Law Implementation as part of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Corruption Prevention and Counteraction. From 2015 to 2016, Leschenko was lecturing journalism at the
Ukrainian Catholic University (Lviv) and delivering a course of lectures on anticorruption at
National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. In June 2013, Leschenko published a documentary book the "American saga of Pavlo Lazarenko" based on the US law enforcement agencies' investigation materials. After the
Euromaidan Leschenko wrote another book the "Mezhyhirya Syndrome. Diagnoses of
Viktor Yanukovych Ruling", which was published in September 2014. Since 2017, Leschenko has his video blogs live on channel "24", where he talks about the current political situation in Ukraine, opens up his political activity and presents the agenda of the modern reformists. Since September 2018, on the same "24", Leschenko presents the political talk show "What was this" with journalist
Yevgeniya Motorevska. Leschenko became a member of the Interfactional union "
Eurooptimists". In 2015, Leschenko became a co-author of the bill "The changes to be made to certain legislation acts of Ukraine about preventing and counteracting corruption". The bill foresees a decrease in the risks of political corruption due to complex changes to Ukrainian legislation in the sphere of political parties and pre-election agitation direct financing that increases parties' financial dependency. The bill was a part of the "visa free package" laws, necessary for the liberalization of
visa free regime for Ukraine. On 26 November 2015, Leschenko presented the documents that he believed had justified the criminal case in
Switzerland on bribery and money laundering. The case was begun against then people's deputy from the "
People's Front" party Mykola Martynenko. Due to the data provided,
Mykola Martynenko was placed under investigation. In fall 2017, together with other people's deputies and civil society representatives, Leschenko held an agitation campaign in support of "Vseukrayinskyi zbir" initiative, which had its focus on "a large political reform". The main points of the reform were a creation of an anticorruption court, abolition of deputies' immunity, a switch to a proportional representation election system with open lists. Serhiy advocates for putting a limit on pre-electoral agitation campaigns on television, which will increase the candidates' ability to compete. In 2017, Leschenko publicly revealed that Prosecutor General of Ukraine
Yuriy Lutsenko had not been receiving members of the public as was required by legislation. This caused the Prosecutor General to start receiving members of the public. After election to the Verkhovna Rada, Leschenko gradually began to criticize the Petro Poroshenko Bloc (PPB) more and more and stopped voting in sync with it. On 28 February 2019, Leschenko voluntarily left the Petro Poroshenko Bloc "Solidarity" faction. On 29 May 2019 Leschenko stated he wanted to take part in the July
2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election for the party
Servant of the People but this party stated on 7 June 2019 that no incumbent
MPs would be on its party list for the 2019 parliamentary election. Instead Leschenko tried to win back his seat in the 220th electoral district in Kyiv. But Leschenko failed to do this, taking third place with 11.98% (7,775 votes). Instead, Servant of the People candidate
Hanna Bondar won the district with 37%.
The real estate scandal On 6 September 2016, a group of deputies of the Verkhovna Rada appealed to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) with a request to check the purchase of Serhiy Leschenko of an apartment of 192 m² in a new building on Ivan Franko Street in the center of Kyiv. At that time, the cost of the apartment was
UAH 12.864 million (
USD 480 thousand). Other sources say that the apartment is worth UAH 7.5 million. According to Leshchenko, half of the amount was borrowed from the chief editor of the
Ukrainska Pravda Olena Prytula, in the form of an
interest-free cash loan for 10 years, the rest was personal funds of Leschenko and his girlfriend, famous Ukrainian DJ Anastasiya Topolska. This apartment purchase has caused a great public outcry. Criticism has undergone both the fact of luxury purchasing, as well as sources of financing. In 2011, this legal entity initiated the
bankruptcy of the state chemical plant Sumykhimprom. Subsequently, thanks to the bankruptcy process, the oligarch Dmytro Firtash gained control over the chemical enterprise. On 19 September 2016, NABU reported an administrative violation with signs of corruption in the Leschenko case: Pritula's loan could be qualified as a
gift, and its receipt contradicts the Ukrainian anti-corruption legislation (restriction on the receipt of gifts by deputies). In addition, USD 77 thousand were spent from the deposits of Serhiy Leschenko's mother, which wasn't stated in the deputy's declaration as his own funds. On 15 February 2017, Pechersky District Court of Kyiv closed an administrative case, not finding
corpus delicti in Leschenko's actions. Judge Volodymyr Karabanʹ, who made the court decision, together with his family members, was repeatedly involved in scandals.
Fight at the Verkhovna Rada On 9 February 2017, people's deputy from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc Ivan Melnychuk started a verbal dispute with Serhiy Leschenko in the session hall of the Verkhovna Rada. The dispute started over a
Facebook post written by Leschenko, wherein he claimed deputies from PPB faction were purposely deteriorating the anticorruption committee meetings so that they could accuse the committee of being a failure later. Ivan Melnychuk used physical force and damaged Leschenko's suit.
Case of Paul Manafort In August 2016, Serhiy Leshchenko announced that the
Party of Regions, shortly before
Viktor Yanukovych's election as the President of Ukraine, paid to the American political consultant
Paul Manafort for his services. According to Leshchenko, the expenses of Ukraine related to his activities exceeded $12 million. In February 2017, correspondence between allegedly Leshchenko and Paul Manafort's daughter Jess appeared on the Internet. This correspondence, posted by anonymous hackers in English with
grammatical errors, was perceived by one Russian media outlet as
blackmail. Manafort confirmed the authenticity of the texts hacked from his daughter's phone. He added that he had received similar texts to his own phone number from the same address appearing to be affiliated with Leshchenko. He also said he did not respond directly to those letters, but resend them to his lawyer. Manafort refused to show these messages to journalists. In March 2017, Leshchenko surrendered to the
NABU documents that, presumably, could prove Manafort's involvement in offshore schemes. These documents showed a $750,000 payment for the supply of 501
computers to a company
David Manafort, from a
Belize-registered offshore company, through a bank in
Kyrgyzstan. Leshchenko urged to begin an investigation of this situation both in Ukraine and in the
USA. At the beginning of Donald Trump's presidency, Manafort demanded that the White House and
Donald Trump actively pressure Ukrainian officials to investigate and discredit Leshchenko because Leshchenko had published information highly critical of Manafort's political consulting work in Ukraine. Manafort provided information to
Rudy Giuliani to smear Leshchenko and entered into a joint legal defense agreement between Manafort's attorneys and Trump's attorneys. At around this time the Zelensky administration (whom Leshchenko had been advising) started to distance itself from Leshchenko reportedly because of concerns about being seen as too close to him while he was attracting criticism from Giuliani. In response, Lutsenko said that "Leshchenko, often on a not-free-of-charge basis from the
US Embassy in Ukraine kicked up a row this scandal, trying to help one of the presidential candidates in 2016" and he called Leshchenko a "political
skunk".
Fight on television After being live on the "Newsone" channel
Ihor Mosiychuk accused Leschenko of discrediting
Oleh Lyashko, who was leading (the parliamentary party)
Radical Party. The quarrel outgrew into a fight.
Supervisory Board of the Ukrainian Railways On 18 December 2019 the
Honcharuk Government appointed Leshchenko a member of the Supervisory Board of the
Ukrainian Railways. The
Shmyhal Government did not renew this contract and on 22 September 2021 Leshchenko left the Supervisory Board. Leshchenko was reappointed to the Supervisory Board on 29 December 2021. ==Publications==