He practiced on the sail training ship Pallada under the guidance of the sea captain Nikolai Zorchenko [ru].

On 18 September 2016, Ishchenko was elected [ru] a member of parliament, a deputy to the Legislative Assembly of Primorsky Krai of the sixth convocation in a single-mandate constituency number 1 - Vladivostok, part of the Pervomaisky district, gaining 24.66% of the votes of voters who came to the polling stations.

[2] He is a former member of the Vladivostok Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and secretary of the primary branch of Pervomaiskoye.

[4] On 17 September 2018, Ishchenko did not agree with the results of the elections, went on a hunger strike and called on the residents of the region to go to the Square of Fighters for Soviet Power [ru] to hold a popular veche.

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation did not nominate Ishchenko to run in the re-run, claiming that he won the governor's election, but that victory was stolen.

In the fall of 2021, Ishchenko was arrested on suspicion of fraud in the construction of a residential building on the funds of equity holders.