Roman Leshchenko

Roman was born on November 23, 1988, in the village of Penizhkove, Khrystynivka District of Cherkasy oblast. He studied at the Law School of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Candidate of Juridical Sciences, defended the dissertation Financial and Legal Regulation of Offshore Mechanisms, specialty 12.00.07, in 2015.

Since 2007 Roman worked for the OSG Group, occupied the position of the main legal consultant of the holding.

Since September 1, 2013, Roman has been an assistant at the Department of Financial Law at the Law School of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. The areas of his professional interest are International Financial Law, Tax Law, Banking Law.

On October 1, 2019, Roman Leshchenko was appointed to the position of the Presidential Commissioner for Land Issues. While occupying this post, he worked on the land reform, took part in preparing and writing Draft Law No 2178-10 on Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding Circulation of Agricultural Lands as well as at the stage of its consideration in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Also, he vindicated the governmental support of the Ukrainian agrarians in the amount of 4 billion hryvnas for 2020.

On June 10, 2020, Roman Leshchenko was appointed the Head of the State Service of Ukraine for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre.

On December 17, 2020, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's national parliament) appointed Roman Leshchenko as the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food.

Leshchenko resigned as agriculture minister on 24 March 2022, without stating a reason.[1]

In December of 2020, the Head of the StateGeoCadastre was offered a bribe in the amount of 170 thousand dollars for clearing and issuing orders to allot land in Khmelnytskyi oblast’ to some front persons within programs of interaction with farms. On December 9, the World Day to Combat Corruption, NABU and SAPO detained the acting head of the Main Department of the StateGeoCadastre in Khmelnytskyi oblast’, Yuriy Klymko, on suspicion of attempted bribery of the Head of the StateGeoCadastre, Roman Leshchenko. NABU added that the suspects were detained at the moment of the attempted transfer of the improper advantage. According to the investigators, acting head of the Main Department of the StateGeoCadastre in Khmelnytskyi oblast along with the intermediary Oleksiy Kovaliov were planning to transfer 170 thousand dollars of improper advantage to Roman Leshchenko for issuing orders to allot land plots to counterfeits. They were detained following the transfer of the second tranche in the total amount of 25 000 US dollars. The total amount of the improper advantage intended for issuing orders to allot land plots to front men was expected to be 170 thousand US dollars. It was Roman Leshchenko who went to the anti-corruption bodies at the beginning of September, 2020. After that, NABU detectives along with SBU officers started documenting the crime.

“We have been working to track down all participants of the scheme and its final beneficiaries for three months. On December 9, the World Day to Combat Corruption, we accomplished this long way,” Roman Leshchenko said during the press-conference held on the occasion of detention of officials of the StateGeoCadastre on October 10, 2020. 

Later, the Higher Anti-Corruption Court ruled to take the both into custody with the alternative option of bail.

Married. Wife Alla, sons Mykola and Hennadiy.