Tkachenko was born on 7 March 1939, in Shpola, Kiev Oblast to a peasant family.

[8] Between 1963 and 1981, he worked in Tarashcha Raion, Kyiv Oblast, first as an agronomist and later as a local Communist Party leader.

On both occasions he withdrew his candidacy, in favour of Leonid Kravchuk in 1991 and Petro Symonenko in 1999.

Tkachenko was a member of the 11th convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR, and in 1994 was elected to the Verkhovna Rada (parliament of Ukraine) for the first of five consecutive terms.

He died on 4 January 2024,[6] and was scheduled to be buried at Baikove Cemetery next to his wife.