Vitaliy Zakharchenko was born in
Kostiantynivka, in the
Ukrainian SSR of the
Soviet Union. He was graduated from the
Riga branch of the
Minsk Higher School of Interior of the USSR in 1991. He began his career with the
police in the
Donetsk Oblast in July 1981. On 7 November 2011 the president appointed him
Minister of Internal Affairs, replacing
Anatolii Mohyliov who had been named the new
Prime Minister of Crimea; According to
Ukrainian media Zakharchenko is a close friend of President Yanukovych's son,
Viktor Viktorovych Yanukovych, though President Yanukovych, through his press service, denied that he appointed individuals to top government positions based on their personal loyalty and closeness to his family rather than qualifications. Since Zakharchenko was an officer of the Interior Ministry, he was not allowed to be a member of a political party. There is a suspicion that the minister owned the single active golden ore deposit in
Muzhievo,
Zakarpattia Oblast. The
Ukrainian parliament suspended Zakharchenko from his duties on 21 February 2014 for using violence against protesters in the
February 2014 Euromaidan riots. Five days later an arrest warrant was put out for him and he is currently wanted on murder charges. Since then he was last seen in
Russia on 13 April 2014 during a joint press conference with Viktor Yanukovych and former
Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Pshonka in
Rostov-on-Don. According to Krymedia.ru, on 16 January 2015 Zakharchenko was planning to arrive in
Sevastopol for a celebration of establishment of
Berkut police anti-riots unit and present his charity fund "Yugo-Vostok" (South-East). The same day, Zakharchenko announced that he acquired Russian citizenship. He was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship on 4 February 2023. ==References==