Leonid Mykhaylovych Chernovetskyi (Ukrainian: Леонід Михайлович Черновецький; born 25 November 1951) is a former Mayor of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, from 2006 until the summer of 2012.

In 1981, he returned to Kharkiv Law School attending aspirantura and obtained his doctorate in 1984 with a dissertation about Methods of investigation of plunders conducted by officials.

[14] Chernovestkyi is a member of the Embassy of God, an evangelical church founded by Nigerian immigrant Sunday Adelaja.

In January 2009 Chernovitskyi bought FC Arsenal Kyiv for 1 Hryvnia from Ukrainian businessman Vadim Rabinovich.

[21] Chernovetskyi was nicknamed "Cosmos" (Ukrainian: Космос) after he publicly announced that he intends to fly in outer space with his cat.

In response, Chernovetsky posed, on 18 March 2009, in tight swimming trunks in front of scores of reporters to try to show he was both physically and mentally fit.

[28] Chernovetskyi's son, Stepan was arrested in Barcelona in July 2016 on charges of money laundering and fraud[29] despite his father's denials and threats of legal action against Spanish authorities.

Opponents say Chernovetskyi won because of a dirty campaign marred by bribing impoverished elderly voters with food; Chernovetsky has denied this.

[38] Leonid Chernovetskyi won another term as Mayor of Kyiv with 38% of the vote in the 25 May 2008 snap local election, called on by the Verkhovna Rada in March 2008.

[39] Former deputy head of Leonid Chernovetsky's Block Alla Shlapak stated opinion, that because of humanitarian programs for pensioners, teachers, medics and other groups of society, Chernoverskiy can be considered the best mayor of Kyiv.

In 2010 he founded a charitable service “Social patrol”, which was delivering warm clothes, food, medical assistance and advising to homeless people.

The main projects of Social Partnership fund are:“Home care” (providing medicaments and medical assistance to those who are in need); “Family-type orphanage”; “Large family support”; “Gathering of clothes” (system for receiving and redistribution of clothes for people in need); “Food collecting program” (gathering of food for poor people).

[46] On 6 February 2009 the Vitaliy Klychko Bloc stated it will apply to the Verkhovna Rada, the Cabinet of Ministers, the National Security and Defense Council, and the Kyiv prosecutor's office with a request to take into consideration the unlawfulness of Kyiv Mayor Leonid Chernovetskyi actions and to call early mayoral elections in the city.

[47] Earlier on 12 December 2008 Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko also hinted that new early mayoral elections should be held again in Kyiv.

[48] This was based on Tymoshenko's disapprove of the handling of Chernovetskyi of the local energy crises of December 2008 when the Kyivenergo utility company began cutting the supply of hot water to about 5,000 homes in Kyiv because of the Kyiv municipal administration's failure to compensate the company for the difference between the tariffs charged by Kyivenerho and the actual cost of its services.

Tymoshenko accuses Leonid Chernovetskyi of using money from the municipal budget to finance his election campaign (and so there were insufficient funds to pay Kyivenerho).

[49] In May 2008, preliminary results showed Leonid Chernovetsky as clear leader ahead of Aleksandr Turchinov, a member of Ukraine Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko's Bloc and Vitaly Klychko.

[50] On 13 March 2009 a Verkhovna Rada temporary commission on the issues of investigating violations of legislation by the officials of the Kyiv city state administration and the Kyiv city council came to the conclusion that it was necessary to examine the mental and physical state of Chernovetskyi, however, the procedure could be performed against his will only under a court ruling.

A March 2010 poll indicated that a large majority of Kyiv residents (more than 89%) were unhappy with his work and would like the mayor to resign without delays (80%).

[7] In November 2010 Prime Minister Mykola Azarov compared Chernovetsky to the Queen of the United Kingdom, saying he had a title but no official decision-making role.

[12] By then Chernovetsky was not to be seen in Kyiv and rumors appeared he was in "quasi-retirement" in Switzerland, was seeking political asylum in Israel or that he had secretly tendered his resignation.

[9][12] In a pressconference on 28 January 2011 Prime Minister Azarov asked Popov “to find by all means” Chernovetsky "to bring him back to the work".

Chernovetsky's spokeswoman Marta Hrymska told The Associated Press on 8 February 2011 in a phone text message that the mayor resumed duties after a vacation in Georgia.

According to Agence France Press, he was discovered by a crew of Ukrainian television channel 1+1 in an apartment in Tel Aviv.

Today he runs the same name fund - Chernovetsky Foundation in Georgia, which supplies more than 3,500 extremely needy Georgians daily and also provides free nursing services to 500 elderly bedridden people who can not move independently.

[65] Leonid Chernovetskiy donated 25,000 lari to the family of the special forces deceased in the international anti-terrorist operation.

He also handed monetary awards to all wounded special forces and employees of the security agency who took part in the anti-terrorist operation.