Beleniuk was born in Kyiv in 1991 to a Rwandan father and a Ukrainian mother. At the time, his father studied at the capital's National Aviation University to become a pilot, while his mother worked as a seamstress. Beleniuk started wrestling at the age of nine. He began training at the Olympic Center in Koncha Zaspa as a teenager, a path that eventually led him to win two world championships (Nur-Sultan 2019, Las Vegas 2015) and become Olympic champion (Tokyo 2021).

While his career on the mat proved as successful as it gets, his venture into becoming the head of the governing body of Ukrainian Olympic Sports did not. In January 2023, Beleniuk left the National Olympic Committee due to disagreements with its new president, Vadym Gutzeit.

Growing up in Kyiv, raised by his mother and grandmother – his father, who had gone back to Ruanda in 1994, died in the aftermath of the Ruandan civil war – Beleniuk regularly suffered from racist attacks. The last one occurred as recently as 2021. Back then, Beleniuk got confronted by racist youth in the streets of the capital, who called him "a black monkey" and told him to "Go to Africa." Back then, Beleniuk described the incident on Facebook and added: "I wonder if I am Ukrainian in the eyes of my state, what criteria of patriotism there are", and asked: "How secure can an Olympic champion feel in his homeland and hometown?! (…) In a European state, is it normal to hear insults such as these?!"

At the time, President Wolodymyr Zelenskyy strongly condemned the abuse on social media, calling Beleniuk "one of the most worthy sons of Ukraine" and ordered the police "to intervene to prevent such unacceptable racist or xenophobic slurs".

On Kremlin's death list

Following the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Beleniuk purportedly found himself on the Kremlin's death list, which led to him only leaving his apartment heavily armed for months. Nevertheless, he has helped feed, support, and relocate thousands of displaced people from all over the country since. Apart from his parliamentary duties, he has also taken on the role of diplomatic emissary, mainly to African countries.

STANDARD: Mr. Beleniuk, we are talking at a point in time when, according to Ukraine’s leadership, the long-expected counteroffensive is going into full swing. Where are we after 18 months since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of your country?

Beleniuk: I honestly do not know how to answer that question. What I do know is that at this moment, we need to have patience and continue to believe in our victory. All I can tell you is that the support for our military is unwavering, and it will remain so until we have kicked out every last occupier. The main point I want to convey to your readers is that the attention our country is getting from our Western partners must not decrease. Everyone has to understand that the war is not over and that we need to win – and we will, but we need your support.

STANDARD: In the early months of the invasion, there were reports about you only leaving your house armed with multiple pistols, as your name purportedly had appeared on one of the Kremlin forces’ "death lists," along with those of other members of parliament and high-ranking officials of the Zelenskyy government. Are you still walking around with guns?

Beleniuk: (laughs) I still have my pistols, but I do not really do that anymore. Back then, the Russian troops had made it all the way to the Kyiv region, and it was a very dangerous time. But since then, we have beaten them back to the Eastern and Southern parts of the country they are currently occupying. There is no immediate threat to the capital anymore, apart from constantly getting bombarded with missiles and drones. I still practice shooting once a week, though. I admit it was a steep learning curve to handle a gun and shoot properly. It looks so easy in the movies, but it is a very different story in real life, so I need to keep myself sharp.

STANDARD: Before the invasion, you had a successful career as a wrestler. Since 2019, you have also been a member of Ukraine’s parliament. How much has your life changed since February 24, 2022?

Beleniuk: I understood I needed to do more for my country than just trying to win Olympic medals and trying to be a decent politician. Since the beginning of the war, I have devoted much time to caring for refugees, trying to help people who have lost everything, and helping out wherever I can. These days, I am still training for one to two hours a day. Still, my priorities have changed, just as the parliamentary session schedule keeps changing due to the war. Concerning my wrestling career: Like many fellow sportsmen and women in Ukraine, we are in a bit of limbo right now.

Everyone is anxious about the International Olympic Committee (IOC) allowing Russians and Belarussians to compete under a neutral flag while their compatriots devastate our country and kill our people. Our National Olympic Committee has not done a good job communicating with athletes and telling us about the situation. Unfortunately, that is sort of a tradition in Ukraine – which is why I campaigned for heading it myself some months ago. All I can say is that things would be run differently if I were in charge. I firmly believe that the decision to participate or not to participate in international competitions should be left to the athletes themselves.

STANDARD: Can you elaborate on that?

Beleniuk: I believe that regardless of the sport if an athlete feels that she or he is ready to go out and compete against a Russian or a Belarusian, they should be able to do so without fear of getting sanctioned. Of course, no one will ever shake hands with them. If, on the other hand, an Ukrainian athlete does not want to compete against them, you have to respect that position as well. The assumption that the people running our Ministry of Sports and other organizational bodies are more patriotic than the athletes representing our country is laughable.

STANDARD: In the past, you have gone on the record about encountering racism in your home country. Still, when President Zelenskyy sent you on a diplomatic mission to Africa to win support for Ukraine, you accepted the offer and traveled to Ruanda and South Africa. How do you reconcile that?

Beleniuk: As a child and a teenager, I faced racism many times. People were calling me the N-word and stuff like that. There were many bad experiences. So, yes, I have faced racism in Ukraine when I was young and as an adult. But the older and more experienced I became, I realized there are idiots in every country. As an Afro-Ukrainian, I can assure you that the vast majority of Ukrainians are adequate people. Unlike in Russia, which claims to fight Nazis but where there are many recorded cases of black people getting beaten up and killed because of their skin color all the time.

As for my trip to Africa: I chose to go because I am a living example of Ukraine being a tolerant country. That is why I became a Member of Parliament in the first place. Of course, when we sometimes look at comments certain people post online – there will always be someone who writes stupid things somewhere – you may get a wrong impression. But these people are not representative of Ukrainian society as a whole.

STANDARD: What was your experience in South Africa in particular? Especially given the fact that Russia has supported racist, far-right, and Neo-Nazi movements throughout Europe and North America for many years, but Pretoria, Cape Town, and Bloemfontein still maintain good relations with Moscow?

Beleniuk: In my personal experience, most South Africans understand Ukraine's situation perfectly and support it accordingly. With some South African politicians – not all, but some, including some in government – it is, unfortunately, a different story due to long-standing historical ties and massive Russian propaganda efforts. We all know how successful the Russian Federation has been in corrupting politicians all over the world – not just in Africa but all over Europe and on other continents as well. So what I tried to do when I was there was to show people that the Russians are lying about all Ukrainians being racists and Nazis. If they were, someone like me would not be a sitting member of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament).

STANDARD: What about Ruanda, which you also visited on your diplomatic mission, and where your father is buried?

Beleniuk: It was a big honor to return to Ruanda in this official role. I had been there only once before. In 2017, shortly after the Rio Olympic Games, I visited my relatives and my dad's grave. He had come back to the country in the aftermath of the Ruandan genocide in the 1990s. From what I have been told, he wanted to become a politician because he wanted to contribute to the warring ethnic groups making peace and bringing those responsible for the crimes against humanity that happened there to justice.

 A long-lasting conflict

You know, in Ruanda, the struggle between the Hutu and the Tutsi had been going on for a hundred years before that, and it was essentially the result of German and Belgian colonialism. Officially, my dad died in a car accident, but many people in Ruanda do not believe this. They think he got murdered because of his beliefs..

STANDARD: Apart from kicking out the Russian forces, Nato and EU accession constitute the main priorities of the Zelenskyy government's agenda. But how realistic is that in the short term, given that Ukraine has been ailing from significant issues – first and foremost, the rampant corruption permeating large swaths of society – until recently?

Beleniuk: Concerning the fight against corruption and implementing laws that comply with EU standards, we still have to do a lot of "homework" indeed. But I am confident we are rapidly becoming worthy of being a member of both Nato and the EU. You must not dismiss the fact that we have already been taking many steps towards fulfilling the rules for accession – not only since the start of the full-scale invasion but for the past nine years. Since the Revolution of Dignity (the 2014 uprising that led to the ouster of the government of Viktor Yanukovych, ann.), this has been the trajectory, and there is no going back.

STANDARD: As an Afro-Ukrainian, you have experienced racial discrimination in your country. But what about the LGBTIQ community, which also faces considerable challenges from certain parts of Ukrainian society?

Beleniuk: Unfortunately, I have to agree it does. It will take time, but I sincerely believe that our society is transforming and that this will change. Discrimination against that community, in particular, is part of the Soviet and post-Soviet mentality that too many people, especially older people, still share. For decades, many Ukrainians watched Russian TV and Russian content on youtube, and you know about the Russian government's position on same-sex relationships and marriage. But, again, our society is changing. Nowadays, we talk much more openly about these things, just as we now talk about issues like racism. Unlike, say, 20 years ago, today, our people can go to civilized countries without much hassle. They can see that people with a different skin color or with a different sexual orientation are perfectly normal.

STANDARD: Still, at this moment, LGBTIQ rights such as same-sex marriage do not rank high on the agenda of Ukraine's parliament – even though there are evidently hundreds, if not thousands, of members of that community fighting on the frontlines and supporting the war effort in a myriad of ways. What is the problem?

Beleniuk: I know that many representatives of this community are serving at the front. It is hard for me to answer this question because… Okay, here’s the thing: The draft law on civil marriage reform was discussed in a parliamentary committee I am a part of (Beleniuk is the First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Youth and Sports, ann.). Mine was the first committee to support it. Still, a vote on it has not been admitted to parliament yet. What can I tell you? I have experienced firsthand how many people perceive such initiatives, and you probably cannot imagine the hatred I encountered debating them. Hence, the approval of this bill will not be easy.

In my view, we need to do a better job communicating with the people opposing it and educating them on what the law is actually about. For some reason, many people fear this law will affect their personal lives. They view it as "promoting same-sex marriage" and say things like: "I have a young boy. If this law passes, I’m afraid he will turn gay." So, again, we still need to do a lot of educational work. (Interview: Klaus Stimeder, Odesa, XX.8.2023)