Yuriy Lutsenko was active during the Revolution on Granite and later made his career in the socialist party. After receiving a degree in electronic engineering from Lviv Polytechnic, Lutsenko worked in engineering, technology, and policy in Rivne from 1989 to 1997. He was also the editor-in-cheif of the opposition newspaper, Grani, until 2005. Lutsenko held many important political positions. Lustenko was the Deputy Minister of Science and Technology of Ukraine from 1997 to 1998 and assistant to prominent political figures from 1998 to 2002.
Lutsenko was a leader of the “Ukraine without Kuchma” protest in 2000. “Ukraine without Kuchma” was a bipartisan movement with support from every political party except for the ones that Lutsenko described as “oligarch parties”. The protests gave great attention to the murder of journalist Georgiy Gongadze; they demanded a full investigation and his murder was the stimulant that led to people to oust a corrupt government. Lutsenko became a People’s Deputy of Ukraine in the fourth convocation from 2002 to 2005. He continued his revolutionary work in the Orange Revolution as a field commander from 2004 to 2005. He then went on to become the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine 2005-2006 and an advisor to President Yushenko 2006-2007.
He continued his political work in the “People’s Self-Defense” party until he was arrested in 2010 and sentenced to 4 years for abuse of office and embezzlement in February of 2012. His was regarded as wrongful, politically motivated, and a violation of rights by the European courts and Lutsenko himself. In April of 2013 he was pardoned by then president Viktor Yanukovych. After his release founded of “third republic” social political platform that later became a party in 2014. He also participated in the Euromaidan protests of 2014.
Lutsenko played a prominent role leading up to the first Impeachment of former President Donald Trump, where he discussed opening an investigation of Hunter Biden with Trump’s lawyer. This was seen as an unnecessary provocation of President Biden at a time Ukraine relied on United States aid and made Lutsenko a controversial figure in Ukraine. In February of 2023 he was appointed as the commander of a platoon of drone operators but lost the position only a month later.