Ihor Palytsia

Palytsia was born 10 December 1972 in Lutsk.[3] In 1994, he graduated from the Lesya Ukrainka East European National University in his place of birth.[3] Since 1993 he has been a businessman and he was a board member of (the national oil and gas company of Ukraine) Naftogaz from 2003 till 2007.[3] Palytsia unsuccessfully took part in the 2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election for the Peasant Party of Ukraine.[10] The party won 0,31% of the votes.[11]

In the 2007 Ukrainian parliamentary election Palytsia was elected MP (as #68 on the party list) of Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc.[3] In the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election he was elected with 40.27% of the votes in simple-majority constituency #22 (situated in Lutsk) as a non-party affiliate.[12] He did not enter any faction in the Verkhovna Rada (parliament).[13]

Palytsia was appointed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko Governor of Odessa Oblast on 6 May 2014, 4 days after the 2 May 2014 Odessa clashes that killed more than 40 people.[14][1][5][15]

In the spring of 2014, the Ukrainian press mentioned Palytsia as being close to Ukrainian oligarch (and then fellow Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast[16]) Ihor Kolomoyskyi.[14][5][13]

In the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election Palytsia was again re-elected into parliament; this time after placing 34th on the electoral list of Petro Poroshenko Bloc.[17][18] He stayed on as Governor till 30 May 2015 when President Poroshenko appointed Mikheil Saakashvili Governor of Odessa Oblast.[2][19]

In July 2015 Palytsia became a member of the political council of the party UKROP.[7] On 26 November 2015 he was elected chairman of the Volyn Oblast regional parliament.[7][6]

In the July 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election Palytsia won a seat as an independent candidate.[20] In parliament he joined the For the Future faction.[21] May 2020 Palytsia was elected chairman of the For the Future party.[22] According to Palytsia For the Future is de-facto a continuation of UKROP.[22]