Yulia Tymoshenko
Who was Yulia Tymoshenko?
Prominent opposition leader who served twice as Prime Minister of Ukraine and was a key figure in the Orange Revolution.
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Yulia Tymoshenko (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko, born Yulia Hrihyan on November 27, 1960, in Dnipro, Ukraine, is a Ukrainian economist, entrepreneur, and politician known for her significant influence in Ukrainian politics after the Soviet era. She studied at the Dnipro University of Technology and the Oles Honchar Dnipro National University, earning an advanced degree in economics. She is married to Oleksandr Tymoshenko. Before her political career, she was successful in the energy sector, which helped pave the way for her later political achievements.
Tymoshenko was the first woman to serve as Prime Minister of Ukraine, holding the position twice. Her first term was from January 24 to September 8, 2005, following her active role in the Orange Revolution alongside Viktor Yushchenko. Her second term was from December 18, 2007, to March 4, 2010. She also served as First Deputy Prime Minister for the fuel and energy sector from 1999 to 2001 and has been elected to the Verkhovna Rada multiple times, starting in 1997. She leads the Batkivshchyna political party and supports Ukraine's integration into the European Union and NATO.
In the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election, Tymoshenko came in second, losing to Viktor Yanukovych by 3.5 percentage points. After Yanukovych secured power, she faced prosecution on charges that were widely criticized as politically motivated by international observers, the European Court of Human Rights, and the Supreme Court of Ukraine. She was jailed from 2011 until her release in 2014 after the Revolution of Dignity, which overthrew Yanukovych. She ran in the 2014 presidential election, again finishing second, this time to Petro Poroshenko.
In the 2019 presidential election, Tymoshenko, despite leading in polls for several years, finished third in the first round with about 13.40 percent of the vote, not progressing to the runoff. She was re-elected to the Verkhovna Rada in 2019 and continued to lead her party in opposition. Over her career, she has received several honors, including the Miner's Glory awards of the 2nd and 3rd class, the Order of the Great September Revolution 1969 in 2009, the Order of the Holy Great Martyr Barbara 2nd class in 1998, and the Order of the Orthodox Crusaders of the Holy Sepulchre in 2009. In 2005, she was ranked third on Forbes magazine's list of the world's most powerful women.
Before Fame
Yulia Tymoshenko was born in Dnipro, known then as Dnipropetrovsk, in Soviet Ukraine. During her early years, the society was built around central planning and state-controlled businesses. She studied at the Dnipro University of Technology and the Oles Honchar Dnipro National University, focusing on economics just as the Soviet system started to break down. When the USSR fell and Ukraine became independent in 1991, many entrepreneurs moved into new markets, especially the energy sector.
Tymoshenko became a key business figure during this time, gaining influence in the natural gas trade amid the chaotic privatization of the early 1990s. Her company, United Energy Systems of Ukraine, became one of the biggest private businesses in the country, earning her the nickname "the gas princess." Her success in business gave her both resources and a public profile, enabling her to enter politics. She won her first seat in the Verkhovna Rada in 1997, starting a political career that would span many decades of Ukraine's democratic growth.
Key Achievements
- Became the first woman to serve as Prime Minister of Ukraine, holding the office twice in 2005 and from 2007 to 2010.
- Co-led the Orange Revolution of 2004, a mass protest movement that reshaped Ukrainian democratic politics.
- Built one of Ukraine's largest private enterprises, United Energy Systems of Ukraine, during the post-Soviet transition era.
- Was fully rehabilitated by the Supreme Court of Ukraine and the European Court of Human Rights after politically motivated imprisonment from 2011 to 2014.
- Ranked third among the world's most powerful women by Forbes magazine in 2005.
Did You Know?
- 01.Forbes ranked Tymoshenko third on its list of the world's most powerful women in 2005, the same year as her first term as Prime Minister.
- 02.She was born Yulia Hrihyan and took the surname Tymoshenko from her husband Oleksandr Tymoshenko.
- 03.Her company, United Energy Systems of Ukraine, was at one point the largest private company in the country, making her one of Ukraine's wealthiest individuals before she pivoted fully to politics.
- 04.She spent approximately three years in detention between 2011 and 2014 on charges that both the European Court of Human Rights and the Supreme Court of Ukraine later declared politically motivated.
- 05.She received the Order of the Holy Great Martyr Barbara 2nd class in 1998, an Orthodox Christian ecclesiastical honor, more than a decade before her better-known political awards of 2009.
Family & Personal Life
Awards & Honors
| Award | Year | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Miner's Glory 2nd class | — | — |
| Miner's Glory 3rd class | — | — |
| Order of the Great September Revolution 1969 | 2009 | — |
| Order of the holy Great Martyr Barbara 2nd class | 1998 | — |
| Order of the Orthodox Crusaders of the Holy Sepulchre | 2009 | — |