You're reading: Volya Party selects Derevyanko as presidential candidate

Unaligned Verkhovna Rada deputy Yuriy Derevyanko has been selected by the Volya (Will) Party to run for president.

The corresponding decision was made at the party congress in Kyiv on Jan. 27.

Derevyanko was elected as a deputy in the parliamentary elections of 2012 and 2014 in district No. 87 in Ivano-Frankivsk region. He is a member of parliament’s Committee on Preventing and Combating Corruption.

Volya was created in 2014 after the Euromaidan and the Revolution of Dignity. It cooperated with Andriy Sadovy’s Samopomich Party before the 2014 extraordinary parliamentary election.

Dervianko and his party in 2017 joined forces with ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili’s Movement of New Forces. Saakashvili was subsequently expelled from Ukraine.

In July 2018, 13 out of 20 regional organizations recommended the Movement of New Forces to support Derevyanko as a presidential candidate.

Before entering politics, Derevyanko was engaged in various business endeavors.