Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko – People’s Deputy of Ukraine of II, III, IV, V, VI, VIII and IX convocations, Prime Minister (2005, 2007 – 2010), head of the political party “Batkivshchyna”.
Place of Birth, Education
She was born on November 27, 1960 in the city of Dnipropetrovsk (now Dnipro).
In the period until 1984, she studied at the Faculty of Economics of Dnipropetrovsk State University, which she graduated with honors, having received the specialty “Economist-Cybernetics”.
Career
After graduating from the university, she began working at the Dnipropetrovsk Lenin Machine-Building Plant, holding the position of an engineer-economist.
In the period from 1989 to 1991, she worked as a commercial director of the youth center “Terminal” in Dnipro.
Later, she headed the Ukrainian Gasoline Corporation, taking the position of CEO. In 1995, she became the president of the United Energy Systems of Ukraine company. In the same year, she was detained during an attempt to illegally transport currency to the Russian Federation (RF), after which she spent about 36 hours in a pre-trial detention center. A few years later, the case was closed due to the decriminalization of the article.
Political Activities
In 1996, she became a people’s deputy of Ukraine for the first time, winning in the single-mandate constituency No. 229 in the Kirovohrad region.
Subsequently, she was repeatedly re-elected to parliament. In 1998, it was elected to the Verkhovna Rada from the All-Ukrainian Association “Community”, and in 2002, 2006, 2007 and 2014 – from the All-Ukrainian Association (VO) “Batkivshchyna”.
In 1999, she became the head of the Batkivshchyna party, and at the end of the same year she took the post of Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine for the Fuel and Energy Complex in the Cabinet of Ministers under the leadership of Viktor Yushchenko.
In early 2001, she was dismissed from the government, after which she was arrested on charges of financial fraud, including currency smuggling, forgery of documents and tax evasion. This happened a few months after the arrest of her husband, who held a senior position in the United Energy Systems of Ukraine company. However, the court canceled the measure of restraint a few weeks later, and later the Kyiv Court of Appeal declared the criminal cases against the Tymoshenko couple illegal.
In 2001, she initiated the creation of the public association “Forum of National Salvation” (“FNP”). Later, the association was renamed the “Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc”.
In September 2002, she became one of the leaders of the protest action “Ukraine without Kuchma”, and in 2004 she joined mass protests against the falsification of the results of the presidential election.
In February 2005, after Viktor Yushchenko’s victory in the presidential election, she headed the government. However, a few months later, the Cabinet of Ministers was dismissed.
According to the results of the parliamentary elections of 2007, a new coalition in the Verkhovna Rada supported her reappointment to the post of Prime Minister. The second government of Tymoshenko worked until 2010, until another majority was formed in the parliament.
In the same year, she took part in the presidential elections. According to the results of the first and second rounds, she took second place, gaining 25.05% and 45.47% of the votes, respectively, losing to Viktor Yanukovych.
After Yanukovych came to power, a number of criminal cases were opened against Tymoshenko. In particular, she was accused of abuse of office during the conclusion of gas contracts with Russia in 2009. In 2011, the court sentenced her to 7 years in prison, and also ordered her to pay UAH 1.5 billion in favor of Naftogaz of Ukraine.
During the events of Euromaidan, when Yanukovych fled Ukraine in February 2014, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a resolution “On the fulfillment of Ukraine’s international obligations to release Tymoshenko Yulia V.”, after which she was released from the colony. A few months later, the High Specialized Court closed a criminal case related to gas deals.
In the spring of 2014, she ran for president again, taking second place in the vote, gaining 12.81% of the vote. Then Petro Poroshenko won.
In 2019, she took part in the next presidential election. In the first round, she received 13.40% of the vote and took third place.
In the same year, she became a people’s deputy of Ukraine for the seventh time and traditionally headed the parliamentary faction of the Batkivshchyna party.
Marital Status
She is married to businessman Alexander Tymoshenko.
Their daughter, Yevgenia Tymoshenko, married businessman Artur Chechotkin in 2014.
