Bondarenko Anatoliy Vasylovych

Longtime Mayor of Cherkasy, known for making politics out of protests against the central government

Anatoliy Bondarenko was born on August 8, 1974, in Lysianka, Cherkasy region; he served in a special forces reconnaissance company and has been Mayor of Cherkasy since 2015. In November 2020, he was re-elected in the second round (54.33%) representing the "For the Future" party. During the Maidan, he was one of the protest organizers, headed the Cherkasy People's Council and the Resistance Movement; he is married and raising three daughters and a son.

From the "quarantine revolt" against Zelensky to a collection of corruption suspicions and a "family" car fleet registered to nominees

Scandal collection. Early in his career, in 2005, media alleged that Bondarenko submitted a forged bachelor's diploma when running for a District State Administration head position — a fact uncovered only in 2010. In 2018, the prosecutor's office handed the mayor two suspicions — for creating artificial obstacles to city council deputies (via a "secret" session in Kanev) and abuse of power, estimating lost budget revenues over 447 thousand UAH; Bondarenko then took a one-month leave.

The main event was the "quarantine revolt." In 2020, the mayor unilaterally eased the lockdown in Cherkasy, clashed with the Cabinet of Ministers and President Zelensky personally, becoming the country's most talked-about politician for several days; the president publicly called him a "bandit" and promised consequences. In response, Bondarenko sued Zelensky for honor and dignity, valuing moral damage at a symbolic 1 hryvnia — and lost. He interprets the criminal cases as political "greetings" from Bankova Street and waves a certificate proving absence of convictions.

In May 2026, OBOZ.UA uncovered a "secret elite car fleet": while the mayor modestly declares driving a 2007 VAZ, his wife Valeria owns a nearly new Lexus LX 570 (worth 1.9 million UAH), and since 2024 has been riding free of charge in a Mercedes-Benz GLS owned by partner Oleksandr Sinhaievskyi — with some cars in the entourage "coincidentally" sharing digits in their license plates.