[2] Zlenko was previously the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations from 1994[5] to 1997.

In 1967 Zlenko graduated from Kyiv University, and was subsequently made a diplomatic attache for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR.

In an interview in 1990, Zlenko said:"A common history existing a thousand years and a deep cultural, linguistic and ideological closeness have linked us with neighboring Poland.

But there are also ethnic...influences, economic ties, trade, mixed marriages, the common Danube waters..."His first term concluded in September 1994, and he became the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations until September 1997, subsequently serving as the Ukrainian Ambassador to France until 2000, in which capacity he returned to his former position as Ukrainian Representative to UNESCO (in November 1998 he also was appointed Ukrainian Ambassador to Portugal).

[1] In 2010, Zlenko was appointed dean of the Faculty of International Relations of Kyiv Slavic University.