He is one of the tallest high jumpers competing on the elite Diamond League circuit, standing 1.98 meters (6' 6").

On 14 June 2014, he achieved his personal best jump of 2.42 metres at the 2014 IAAF Diamond League event in New York City.

The jump is a European record and places him joint third on the men's all-time list, behind Javier Sotomayor and Mutaz Essa Barshim and tied with Patrik Sjöberg.

In 2005 he had a jump of 2.15 metres, achieved in September in Yalta, and in January 2006 in Kyiv, he improved to 2.21 on the indoor track.

[8] This was enough to win the gold medal, ahead of Sylwester Bednarek, who placed fourth two years earlier, and Miguel Ángel Sancho.

[3] Entering the 2009 European Indoor Championships, he managed to equal this height in the qualifying round, which gave him a place in the final.

Only 2 men jumped higher, as Bondarenko and five other jumpers ended their competition at 2.29, with the places determined by the countback: there was a 3-way tie for the third place bronze medal (based on clearing 2.29 on their first try), with Bondarenko relegated to seventh because he needed two attempts to clear that height.

After his win at Doha, Bondarenko told EME News that his victory was unexpected: "I had two pre-season training camps in Yevpatoriya where I injured my take-off (right) knee in the end of April.

Bondarenko then set another new PB on Sunday 30 June, winning the Sainsbury's Grand Prix meeting (a Diamond League competition) in Birmingham, England with a jump of 2.36, which tied the meet record and bested Eric Kynard of the USA, who finished second with a jump of 2.34.

Less than a week later, in July 2013, Bondarenko cleared 2.41 metres at another Diamond League meet, the Athletissima, in Lausanne, Switzerland.

He secured the win after just his third jump and then had the bar raised to 2.43 (7' 11 1/2") – one centimeter above the European record set by Sweden's Patrik Sjöberg in 1987.

[2] Early in the season, Ivan Ukhov and then Mutaz Essa Barshim equalled Bondarenko's 2.41m making for the trio of contemporary athletes having cleared the third highest height in history.

All of the top high jumpers were entered in the "Golden Gala" Diamond League meet in Rome.

Traditionally held in Rabat, this year the Mohammed VI d’Athletisme meeting was moved to the Grand Stade de Marrakech.

The following week at the Adidas Grand Prix, Icahn Stadium, New York City, on Saturday afternoon June 14, Bondarenko and Barshim were locked in a tight competition, with both improving to 2.42m (on their first attempts), equalling Patrick Sjoberg's former world record from 1987 as the second best jumpers outdoors in history.

[14] The 2.42m mark (7 feet 11 & one-quarter inch) is also the United States "Open" record - the highest jumps ever made in North America.

At the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, Bondarenko tied for silver with China's Zhang Guowei, behind Canada's Derek Drouin.