Ivan Lozowy is a civic activist, politician, business consultant, international lawyer, journalist and Fighter for Ukraine's Independence in the 21st Century (as per Ukrainian law) who has lived permanently in Ukraine since March 10, 1991, changing his citizenship from American to Ukrainian in November 1997
Education.
After graduating from Regis High School in New York City, Lozowy received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia College at Columbia University in New York with a major in "philosophy-economics." One of his classmates, who also graduated from this college in 1983, was Barack Obama.
In 1986, Lozowy graduated from the New York University School of Law. The following year, he became a student at the Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas, where he studied international law and received a “maîtrise” diploma in international and European law.
Career.
At the end of the 1980s, Lozowy worked as a paralegal in the office of then US Attorney General for the Southern District of New York and future mayor of New York Rudolph Giuliani.
From 1989 to 1990, he worked at The Heritage Foundation in Washington as a Research Associate, then first visiting Ukraine in May 1990.
In February 1991, Mykhailo Horyn from the Popular Movement of Ukraine “RUKH” visited Washington and delivered a lecture at the invitation of The Heritage Foundation on Ukrainian independence. It was then that Lozowy asked Horyn if he could come to Ukraine and work for RUKH.
From 2000 to 2001, he worked first for the personal service for the head of the State Committee on Information Policy, Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine, Ivan Drach, later in the position of head of the New Information Technologies and Internet Directorate (which represents the 5th rank of government service).
After working for the State Committee, in February 2002, Lozowy began working as a business consultant for large Western companies and investors into Ukraine via several foreign companies in which he was owner or part owner, including “AI Information Network” and “Amber Global Consulting.” During the course of nine years, he completed work on over 300 individual business projects.
Also, from 2002 to 2004, working as in-house counsel for the CJSC "Tokios Tokelės," a Lithuanian investor in the Ukrainian publisher “Taki Spravy,” he represented the investor in a complaint to the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes, which is affiliated with the World Bank.
Representing the interests of the widow of the former director of the Azov Merchant Fleet, Anatoliy Bandura, who was killed in 2005 in Bykivna, near Kyiv, Lozowy won a case before the European Court of Human Rights.
The head of the Sumy Oblast State Administration, Vasyl Khoma, in June 2021, appointed Lozowy as one of his advisors on attracting investments into the Sumy region. But in connection with Khoma’s resignation, Lozowy left this post after only one month.
Political activity.
During elections to the Verkhovna Rada in 2002, Lozowy was included from RUKH in the list of candidates from the block of political parties “Viktor Yushchenko’s Block ‘Our Ukraine’” at number 182.
In 2005, he participated as a delegate in the founding congress of the political party “Our Ukraine,” which was headed by Yushchenko. However, dissatisfied with President Yushchenko’s decision to nominate Viktor Yanukovych to the post of Prime Minister, Lozowy left the party, remaining without a party affiliation until 2017.
As an early admirer of the reforms introduced in Georgia by President Mikheil Saakashvili, in 2017 Lozowy joined the newly formed political party Movement of New Forces of Mikheil Saakashvili (“MNFMS”), where he was first a member of the Political Council, the head of the Kyiv city branch, and later a member of the party’s leadership, the Party Council.
In the MNFMS, Lozowy was among the organizers and helped finance the “Marches for Impeachment” against President Petro Poroshenko in 2017-2018.
In 2019, Lozowy ran for a seat in the Verkhovna Rada in majoritarian district No. 167 in the Sumy oblast, self-nominated, but lost (placing second).
Following Saakashvili's imprisonment in Georgia in 2021, Lozowy organized a number of protest actions demanding Saakashvili's release.
Civic activity.
At the start of 1992, Lozowy founded the Pylyp Orlyk Institute of Democracy, one of Ukraine’s first non-governmental organizations, and served as its first Executive Director.
From 1993, Lozowy heads up the International Relations Department of RUKH. Also in 1993, he organized for RUKH the conference entitled "Communism - Civilization's Dead End," at which one of the speakers was Dr. Richard Pipes.
In 1996, with assistance from the Popular Movement of Ukraine “Rukh,” Lozowy founded the NGO, the Institute of Statehood and Democracy.
In 2007, as part of a widespread campaign for the recall of Walter Duranty's Pulitzer Prize, Lozowy organized a protest action in Kyiv, “No prizes for Duranty!”
In 2010, 2011, and 2016, Lozowy organized the “Gareth Jones Prize” competition, with a prize fund of $2,500, a writing competition designed to spread knowledge about Jones and the Holodomor.
At the invitation of Oles Doniy in 2012, Lozowy became head of the Executive Committee of the All-Ukrainian Committee for the Protection of the Ukrainian Language and organized a number of events in Kyiv and also in Lviv.
In 2013, Lozowy founded the organization “Anti-Tabachnyk,” whose chief aim was the resignation of then Minister for Education Dmytro Tabachnyk. During protests which took place that November and preceded the Euromaidan, Lozowy accused Tabachnyk of imposing the Russian language, ignoring the Holodomor and Ukraine’s national heroes, and propagating Soviet views.
In mid-April 2014, Lozowy traveled to Luhansk and spoke at one of the last pro-Ukrainian demonstrations held in the city. After returning to Kyiv, he declared: "we have already passed the point of no return," foreshadowing the development of Russia's war against Ukraine.
In 2015, Lozowy founded the charitable organization “The Charitable Fund in Memory of Ivan Hryhorovych Lozowy” in honor of his father. The Fund engages in providing assistance in the Sumy oblast, particularly the southern portion, where Lozowy’s father was born and raised.
In 2016, Lozowy was included in the Inter-agency Working Group of the Kyiv City State Administration on Realizing the Concept of the Development of the Ukrainian Language, Culture and Educating Historical Memory for Kyiv City Residents for 2015-2020.
In 2016, Lozowy created a new NGO, the Movement to Fight Corruption, among whose founders, besides Lozowy, were Professor Wolodymyr Cherniak and the Donetsk journalist Artem Furmaniuk.
In December 2016, Lozowy organized in Kyiv the All-Ukrainian Scientific-Practical Conference “The Russian Occupation and Deoccupation of Ukraine: History, Current Dangers and Challenges for Today.” The conference's lectures were published.
The human-rights activist Iryna Nozdrovska, who was murdered at the end of 2017, worked with Lozowy in the Movement to Fight Corruption, also on behalf of Mikheil Saakashvili, the head of the Movement of New Forces. Lozowy conducted a separate, private investigation of the circumstances of Nozdrovsky's murder.
In 2020, as part of the activities of the Movement to Fight Corruption, Lozowy created the “International Data Base of Corrupt Officials in Ukraine,” set out in six languages, which was presented at a press-conference.
In December 2021, Lozowy presented the project “CONTRA-ru,” which gathered information on the financing of Ukraine's territories occupied by Russia.
From the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army on February 24, 2014, Lozowy, as a donor, has assisted the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Journalist activity.
From 2004 to 2011, Lozowy worked as a journalist for the Internet publication “Transitions Online.”
In 2019, Lozowy registered a regional newspaper, “The True Word from Ivan Lozowy,” which began to circulate immediately, twice monthly, in the Sumy oblast, gaining a circulation of 14 thousand.Some local satraps attempted to block the paper's publication. However, the paper ceased publication in connection with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces on February 24, 2022.
Service in the “Aidar Battalion”.
In May 2014, Lozowy joined up with the 24th Territorial Defense Battalion, which later became known as the “Aidar Battalion,” in fighting the invasion by Russia in eastern Ukraine in the Luhansk oblast. On August 3, 2014, Lozowy participated in a military operation into the city of Luhansk itself, in the area of Krasniy Yar.
Regarding his time with the Aidar Battalion, Lozowy released a video of his own photos and video fragments. He also later formed a Facebook group, “Friends of the Aidar Battalion,” and helped the battalion as a volunteer and with military equipment.
Personal life.
Shortly after first coming to Ukraine Ivan Lozowy decided to remain and began the process of learning the procedure to acquire Ukrainian citizenship. In 1997 he swore an oath of renunciation from US citizenship, thus becoming one of the first Americans of Ukrainian descent who changed citizenship from American to Ukrainian.
In one interview Lozowy states that he is proud of his Ukrainian citizenship, which has helped him to feel closer to the Ukrainian people and to fight against the “anti-national activities of the government.”
Born in 1961 in the city of New York in the family of Ivan Hryhorovych (1927-1983) and Liudmila Elizavetivna Lozowy. His mother still resides in New York. He has two daughters, Oleksandra and Liudmyla.
References.
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