The story to this point: Kyiv woke to a heat July morning on 17, its daylight spilling over the golden dome of the Verkhovna Rada. In entrance of the Parliament constructing, Yulia Svyrydenko took her place now not as a minister or financial strategist, however now Ukraine’s new prime minister. A nation below siege by struggle, which is scarred by loss and examined by time, turns to her management with cautious hope.
She turns into Ukraine’s nineteenth prime minister at a defining second. As June ends, so does Denys Shmyhal’s five-year tenure. What follows is a transition of energy, imaginative and prescient, voice and urgency. Svyrydenko steps in not as a populist, nor a wartime orator, however as a peaceful and calculated technocrat. She is an economist by coaching, a builder of frameworks and a problem-solver in the midst of disaster.
Her path to this second has been a long time within the making. Born on Christmas Day in 1985 in Chernihiv, Svyrydenko was a standout pupil at Kyiv’s State College of Commerce and Economics. With a grasp’s diploma in antitrust administration, she began within the non-public sector earlier than transitioning to public service in 2011. Her early years noticed her posted to China and later advising regional governments on financial development.
By 2019, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took discover. He introduced her right into a socio-economic working group throughout early peace dialogues, later elevating her to deputy head of the Presidential Workplace. In November 2021, months earlier than Russia’s full-scale invasion, she grew to become deputy prime minister and minister of economic system.
Then got here struggle.
As a substitute of retreating, she helped Ukraine navigate one in every of its darkest intervals. She performed a pivotal position in securing a U.S.-Ukraine Reinvestment Fund in 2022, unlocking funding for rebuilding and tapping into Ukraine’s mineral wealth. This yr, she carried Ukraine’s case to Rome, securing 11 billion euro in restoration pledges from Western companions.
President Zelenskyy formally nominated her on July 14. Three days later, 262 members of Parliament voted in favour. She grew to become the primary girl to guide Ukraine’s authorities throughout wartime.
Her mandate is steep. Ukraine faces a $19 billion fiscal gap. Artillery shells proceed to fall. However she has already laid out her battle plan – deeper fiscal reforms, deregulation, privatisation and a push to fabricate at the very least half of Ukraine’s army tools domestically inside six months. She goals to hurry up EU integration and deepen army ties with the USA.
In her first message on X, she wrote, “Our Authorities units its course towards a Ukraine that stands agency by itself foundations – army, financial and social. My key aim is actual, constructive outcomes that each Ukrainian will really feel in each day life. Struggle leaves no room for delay.”
It’s a nice honor for me to guide the Authorities of Ukraine at the moment.
Our Authorities units its course towards a Ukraine that stands agency by itself foundations — army, financial, and social. My key aim is actual, constructive outcomes that each Ukrainian will really feel in each day life.
Struggle… pic.twitter.com/oytWMCp1S3
— Yulia Svyrydenko (@Svyrydenko_Y) July 17, 2025
With that, a brand new chapter begins.