Yevhen Marchuk

(Gen. Ret.) Yevhen K. Marchuk ( _uk. "Євген Кирилович Марчук", (born 28 January, 1941) is a Ukrainian statesman and politician.

He was appointed acting Prime minister of Ukraine on March 1, 1995 and confirmed on June 8, 1995. He resigned on May 27, 1996, after being elected to the Verkhovna Rada.He ran as an independent in the 1999 presidential election, coming in fifth place with 8% of the vote, and was appointed secretary of the National Security and Defense Council by the re-elected President Leonid Kuchma. Later he was the Defense Minister of Ukraine from June 2003 to September 2004.

Early career

In 1963, during his study in Kirovohrad Teachers' Institute, Marchuk was recruited by the KGB and steadily rose through the ranks. He served first in Kirovohrad Oblast, then in the republican KGB branch in Kiev. Marchuk has admitted specializing in secret police functions. However, he claims to have been a humane lawful agent, secretly protecting some Ukrainian dissidents from harsh persecution.

In the early 1990s, Marchuk was one of the first high-level KGB officers who appeared to be loyal to the newly-established Ukrainian independence. Thus he was appointed the "Ukrainian SSR Minister of National Security and Defence". That position posed no actual power since local KGB, militsiya and army were still subordinated to Moscow until 1991. The Soviet Union then collapsed, ending Marchuk’s service to the KGB and he was able to participate fully in the Ukrainian independent government.

Controversy

On December 6, 2001, the Italian prosecutor's office accused Marchuk of violating the UN embargo on supplying arms to various parts of the world. The accusations remained never investigated nor prosecuted.

Recent career developments

Marchuk now heads the Ukrainian Party of Freedom and participated unsuccessfully in the 2006 parliamentary election. He is affiliated with the Ukrainian "Den'" newspaper, edited by his wife.