Leonid is the leader of the Odessa branch of Jews for Jesus and a member of the CIS Jews for Jesus committee. He received Yeshua as his Lord and Savior in 1995 through the witness of his wife, Olga. In December 1995, he met Jews for Jesus and began volunteering with them. And in November 1996, he joined the staff as an outreach worker. Before leading the Odessa branch, Leonid led the branch in Kharkov. He has organized dozens of outreaches and campaigns in different countries: Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Israel, and USA. Leonid is also the founder and head pastor of three Messianic Jewish congregations in Odessa.

In 1996, when I got a new job as a salesman, I met a young couple that worked next to me, Yury and Natasha. Once, I learned that they never work on Sundays. I got very surprised at this because in sales one could earn a lot of money on a weekend. I asked them some questions, and Natasha began to tell me about Jesus. In about six months, they invited me to attend a church service with them. To be completely honest, I did not really like it in church. But when I looked at my new friends, I could not help noticing how everything seems to work out for them and how happy they are.
Seven or eight months later, I reconciled with God and invited Jesus into my life. This happened in 1996.
Soon, Yura was invited to join the Jews for Jesus ministry as an administrator, and he invited me to take part in the ministry as well. Periodically, I took part in outreaches of Jews for Jesus. Some more missionaries of Jews for Jesus were part of my church and shared a lot about this ministry with us. So, you could say that I grew up spiritually with Jews for Jesus.
In 2003, leader of the Odessa branch invited me to participate in the Behold Your God campaign in Odessa, Ukraine. I agreed. For a month, we all went out to the streets of Odessa, gave out tracts and shared the gospel message with people. After this campaign, I felt a fire in my heart towards the Jews for Jesus ministry. So, in March 2004, I joined Jews for Jesus in Odessa as an outreach worker.
I have a wonderful wife named Lina and two sons Alexander & Mark.