[2][3] Born in Minsk, in 1977 Nazarenko graduated from the Higher Military-Political College in Lviv (today Sahaidachny Academy of Ground Forces) and then served in the Lviv Border Guard detachment of the Western Border Guard District.

After the war and the fall of the Soviet Union, he returned to his native Lviv Border Guard detachment where in 1992–94 he served functions as a chief of staff.

From 1995, Nazarenko was a staff officer for the Northwestern and then Southern regional administrations of the Border Guard Troops.

In 2000–2004 Nazarenko was a chief of the Azov-Black Sea Regional Administration (initially Crimean) of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine and headed the operation to prevent the Russian intrusion to the Tuzla island in 2003.

On 23 October 2014, President Petro Poroshenko appointed Nazarenko head of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.