Interfax-Ukraine news agency founder Martynenko died

Oleksandr Martynenko, the founder and head of the Interfax-Ukraine information agency, has died.

Interfax-Ukraine has announced this, the Ukrainian News agency reports.

"The Interfax-Ukraine news agency is deeply saddened to announce the death of the agency's founder and head Oleksandr Martynenko in Kyiv on Tuesday," the message reads.

Martynenko was 63 years old.

He was born on August 22, 1960 in Kharkiv.

He graduated from the Faculty of Economics of the Kharkiv State University.

He worked as a junior researcher at the Department of National Economy Planning of the Kharkiv State University (1987—1990), correspondent, editor of the department of the newspaper Orientyr Dip (1990—1992), chief editor of the agency Kharkiv-Novyny (1992).

In 1992, Martynenko created and headed the Interfax-Ukraine agency, until 1998 he was the president of the agency.

In 1991, he was the deputy head, in 2001, a consultant of the Administration of the President of Ukraine.

In 1998-2001, Martynenko was the press secretary of the President of Ukraine, Leonid Kuchma.

In 2001-2002, he worked as the secretary of the Council on Information Policy under the President of Ukraine, in 2002-2003 - a member of the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting.

Since 2003, he has been the director general of Interfax-Ukraine. Since 2010, he has been an honored journalist of Ukraine.