Andriy Sadovyi


Andriy Ivanovych Sadovyi is a Ukrainian politician. He is the mayor of Lviv, the administrative center of the Lviv Oblast of western Ukraine, former leader of the Self Reliance political party, and co-founder of "Lux" media holding. Sadovyi was a candidate in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election from 8 January until 1 March 2019, when he decided to withdraw.

Early years

Andriy Sadovyi was born on 19 August 1968 in the city of Lviv. He graduated from the Lviv Technical School of Radioelectronics in 1987. He performed his military service from 1987 to 1989 in the army of the USSR.

Education

In 1989, Andriy Sadovyi began working as an adjuster of radio-electronic devices at the Lvivprylad Manufacturers. In 1992–1995 he was a deputy director of the Lviv branch of Social Adaptation of Youth Fund under the auspices of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
From 1997 to 2005 he was the chairman and head of the board of joint-stock company Pivden'zakhidelectromerezhbud. From 1997 to 2001 he was the head of the board of the Lviv District Development Fund. From 2002 to 2003 Sadovyi was a director of the Lviv Development Institute that publishes the Ukrainian-wide Misto journal. Since 2002, Sadovyi has been the head of the board of the joint-stock Radio&TV company TRK Lux. Since 2005 he has been the head of social organization Self Reliance.

Social activity

Sadovyi has been engaged in social activity since 1997. He is a founder and the head of a board of the social organization Lviv Development Institute, head of the Management Council of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptyts’kyi Art and Culture Fund of Greek Church of Ukraine, member of Ukrainian-Polish Cooperation Capital. In 2003, he was elected a deputy head of the "Mosty na Skhid" Institute Council. On 26 March 2006, Sadovyi was elected the city mayor of Lviv. On 31 October 2010, he was re-elected for a second term to the post of mayor of Lviv.

Incidents and scandals

At 11:30pm on 25 July 2014 Sadovyi's house was hit by a HEAT warhead of an RPG-18. The combatant who shot the RPG is unknown, and Sadovyi was not home at the time of the explosion. The explosion damaged the roof, beams and windows of Sadovyi's house.
At 8:45pm on 26 December 2014, the house was hit again. On this day Sadovy and his family were reportedly at the Bukovel Resort. Walls, windows and doors were damaged.
At 10:50pm on 29 October 2015, a grenade was thrown into the courtyard of the Sadovyi's house. Sadovyi and  his family were at home at the time of the explosion, however nobody was hurt and no damage was caused. The attacker was arrested.
In the summer of 2016, the Lviv Gribovitsky landfill was closed on court-order, after a fire erupted on-site and claimed the lives of four. The closure led to the dumping of Lviv garbage inside the city and in other area not equipped for this purpose.
In March 2017 Sadovyi announced the signing of a memorandum on the termination of Lviv's trash block.  However, in June 2017, due to the severity of the problem – more than 9,000 tons of garbage had accumulated in and around the city – the issue was handed-over to the Lviv Regional State Administration for two years.
In March 2019 Sadovyi stated that he would not take part in the next election of mayor of Lviv.
On 21 November 2019 the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine announced they suspected Sadovyi of abuse of power. The stated that the Lviv city authorities had sold for $2.2 million a plot of land in Lviv Oblast that is not a part of the Lviv. According to the prosecutors, the plot was also sold at a lower cost than it should have been and without an auction, causing $3.86 million in monetary damages to the Riasne-Ruske village and the state. If found guilty, Sadovyi and other suspects in the could be sentenced from three to six years in prison.
During the Coronavirus Crisis of Spring 2020 Lviv Mayor Sadovyi has been accused of lack of preparedness in the city of Lviv despite numerous photo opportunities with medical staff and equipment. A World Health Organisation team visiting Lviv in March 2020 were refused permission to establish a western Ukraine laboratory as Sadovyi and his staff wished to control data and information flow, contrary to WHO standards. Several media stories have highlighted serious shortcomings in Lviv city.

Political affiliation

Andriy Sadovyi was a member of Our Ukraine until 2010. In October 2012, he called for the creation of a new political party, Self Reliance, which was registered in late December 2012. The name stems from societies that existed prior to World War I in Galicia and which were revived after World War II as credit unions in the United States. Led by Sadovyi, the party finished third in the Ukrainian parliamentary election in October 2014. He decided to remain as mayor of Lviv instead of taking a seat in parliament.
Self Reliance announced on 3 October 2018 that Sadovyi is their candidate in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election. He was a candidate in the election from 8 January until 1 March 2019, when he decided to withdraw to support the candidacy of Anatoliy Hrytsenko. Hrytsenko had already asked Sadovyi about 1 year prior to support his candidacy, Sadovyi eventually withdrew from the presidential election due to his low rating in opinion polls. Registration of Sadovyi's candidacy was officially cancelled on 5 March 2019. In these election Hrytsenko did not proceed to the second round of the election; in the first round he placed fifth with 6.91% of the votes.
In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election Self Reliance last all its parliamentary seats except for one single seat won in a constituency.
In October 2019 Oksana Syroyid succeeded Sadovyi as party leader of Self Reliance.

Family

He is married to Kateryna Kit-Sadova. and has five sons: Ivan, Tadey, Mykhailo, Yosyp and Anthony.
Kit-Sadova owns large shares in various television and radio broadcasters.