Heorhiy Kirpa

Heorhiy Mykolayovych Kirpa (Ukrainian: Георгій Миколайович Кірпа) (20 July 1946 in Klubivka, Khmelnytskyi Oblast – 27 December 2004 in Bortnychi, Kyiv) was a Ukrainian railway manager, statesman and politician, best known as the head of the Ukrzaliznytsia national railway company and Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications under President Leonid Kuchma.

In May 2002, Kirpa was appointed Minister of Transport[1] by the then President Leonid Kuchma and on April 23 was awarded an honourable title Hero of Ukraine.

In a publicly debated move in 2003, the President placed paramilitary railroad armed forces under the direction of Kirpa.

[2] Heorhiy Kirpa was found shot dead at his holiday home in Bortnychi (the outskirt of Kyiv), on 27 December 2004.

[3] Late December 2009 the Southwestern Railways requested the Kyiv City Council to rename Petrozavodska Street, which is located in the Solomianskyi Raion of Kyiv, as Heorhiy Kirpa Street.