Yurii Volodymyrovych Hudymenko (; born 14 December 1987) is a Ukrainian politician. He is leader of the "Demokratychna Sokyra" movement. He participated in the Russo-Ukrainian War as commander of a military engineer detachment with the rank of junior sergeant (corporal).
He had been a political prisoner, journalist and blogger. He holds a master’s degree from the Zaporizhzhia National University in history with teaching qualification.
On September 6, 2022, Yuriy was awarded the Order for Courage 3rd class for personal courage in defending state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's decree №627/2022. On September 28, 2022, Yuriy was awarded the Commander-in-Chief's Honor «Steel Cross».
He appeared in videos of anti-war pro-Ukrainian position.
Activism
In 2008 he became involved in activism and the political process. In 2010 he served as deputy head of a political party in Zaporizhzhia. In 2011 he was sentenced to two years in prison (sentence suspended) for defacing the monument to Dzerzhynsky with a bucket of paint (Dzerzhynski was one of the founders of the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (Cheka) and organizer of the "Red Terror"). Gudymenko was an aide to the leader of the Zaporizhzhia Euromaidan. As a participant in Euromaidan rallies in Zaporizhzhia, he was beaten up during January 26, 2014, violent dispersal of the protest by the police. In 2014, after the Revolution of Dignity, the Zhovtnevy district court of Zaporizhzhia amnestied Gudymenko among with other pro-Ukrainian activists wrongfully judged during the Yanukovych regime per request of Prosecutor General of Ukraine. In 2014 he initiated the "Operation Butterfly" website – one of the first databases containing information on separatists. In 2016–2017 he headed the campaign department for a Ukrainian political party.
Political activity
In Spring 2018 he co-founded the Demokratychna Sokyra party, along with other major Ukrainian bloggers and influencers sharing his ideas. The party’s ideology is based on the ideas of classical liberalism, aimed at supporting economic deregulation, strengthening the military and defending human rights (being the only party consistently supporting LGBTQ+ rights, sex workers rights, and the right to self-defence), combined with a strong pro-European, pro-American, pro-NATO, anti-Russian and anti-communist position.
Ran in the 2020 Kyiv local election as the 1st candidate in the Demokratychna Sokyra list, with Yulia Payevska (Taira) as 2nd.
As a political council member, Gudymenko is responsible for PR and public rallies. Thus, he organised and took part in numerous protest campaigns, bringing public attention to the problems in Ukraine and helped achieve key decisions for the state and the society, such as: Demokratychna Sokyra was one of the initiators and organisers for the "No to capitulation!" campaign against implementing the political part of the Minsk agreements and concessions for Russia. Afterwards, the party organised multiple protests against the soft-on-Russia policies of president Volodymyr Zelenskyy throughout 2020; Human rights campaigns for legalisation of medical cannabis, gun rights, medical and education reform. Consistent campaigns protesting attempts made by Ihor Kolomoyskiy and other Ukrainian oligarchs, like Dmytro Firtash and Rinat Akhmetov, to use their influence on the state and courts to obtain decisions, more preferable for their businesses; protests against pro-Russian media influence; campaign calling for impeachment of president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and firing the Office of the President Head Andrii Yermak for their actions in 2021, considered by the party to be dangerously soft on Russia and corruption in the state, with some calling them treasonous.
In late 2022, Gudymenko filed a claim with the Office of Prosecutor General, which used it to open criminal proceedings for high treason (p. 111 of the Ukraine Criminal Code), passing it onto the State Bureau of Investigation to investigate all MPs from the pro-Russian OPZZh party parliament fraction.
In January 2023, Gudymenko's petition №22/174786-еп, demanding to introduce clear markings for brands selling products in the Russian Federation reached 30000 signatures.