Boyko ran for President in the March 2019 election, winning many districts in the southeast of the country but narrowly missing qualification for the second round by 4.28% of the votes.

[9][11] From 1981 to 1999, Boyko started as a master at an industrial site and rose to the title of Director General of the chemical plant Zarya in Rubizhne.

[9] Holding office for over a year, on 18 December 2007, he was dismissed due to the upcoming parliamentary elections, which he successfully contested as member of the Party of Regions.

reorganisation of ministries), Yanukovych, who was now President of Ukraine, dismissed Boyko on a technicality and re-appointed him as Minister of Energy and Coal Industry.

[25] In the election Boyko took the fourth place with 11.67% of the total vote, just over 4% behind incumbent Petro Poroshenko, who polled second and progressed to the second round along with Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

[citation needed] Boyko reversed a number of his pro-Russian stances following the ban on his party, and later formed a new parliamentary group made up of former Opposition Platform — For Life members called Platform for Life and Peace, now backing the Servant of the People government in parliament, alongside the other party made up of formerly pro-Russian politicians, Restoration of Ukraine.

[28] However, in December 2024, Boyko was criticised after posting a video on social media saying that “radicals” were “tearing down monuments, renaming cities, forbidding people to speak their native language and attend the church of their choice”, which was similar to stances expressed by Russia.

[30] Data shortly before the parliamentary elections in June 2019 suggested that Boyko was the second-ranked pick to be Prime Minister of Ukraine behind eventual appointee Oleksiy Honcharuk.

[31] According to newspaper Dzerkalo Tyzhnia ("The Weekly Mirror"),[32][33] in 2011 Boyko was cited confirming the purchase of a modern offshore drilling platform from Singapore.

[36] Throughout the whole affair, Boyko denied fraud allegations surrounding the purchase, citing additional equipment and movement costs and a "report from Halliburton" confirming the price of $400M.

[38][needs update] The affair also sparked a scandal in Norway where Seadrill was accused of insufficient due diligence and KYC on its shell customer Highway Investment Processing LLC.