Denys Anatoliiovych Shmyhal (, ; born 15 October 1975) is a Ukrainian politician and entrepreneur who has served as the 18th and current

prime minister of Ukraine The prime minister of Ukraine (, , ) is the head of government of Ukraine. The prime minister presides over the government of Ukraine, Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which is the highest body of the executive branch of the government of Ukrain ...

since 2020. Before his appointment as prime minister, Shmyhal was the governor of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast and an acting vice prime minister in the Honcharuk Government. As Prime Minister, Shmyhal has been in charge of handling the response to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

and conducting the defense of Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion. As of 2025, he is the longest serving prime minister in Ukrainian history.

Early life

Shmyhal's parents are Anatoly Ivanovich and Irina Feliksovna. In 1997, Shmyhal graduated from the Lviv Polytechnic university. He holds the PhD-equivalent title of Candidate of Economic Sciences (2003).

Early career

From his graduation in 1997 until September 2005, Shmyhal worked as an accountant in various companies. From September 2005 to June 2006, Shmyhal was Deputy General Director of a company called "LA DIS". From June 2006 to August 2008, he was Director for the

investment company An investment company is a financial institution principally engaged in holding, managing and investing securities. These companies in the United States are regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and must be registered under th ...

"Comfort-Invest". From September 2008 to September 2009, Shmyhal was General Director of a company called "Rosaninvest LLC".

Political career

Shmyhal worked in multiple leading political roles in Ukraine's

Lviv Oblast Lviv Oblast (, ), also referred to as Lvivshchyna (, ), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast in western Ukraine. The capital city, capital of the oblast is the city of Lviv. The current population is History Name The region is named ...

from 2009 until December 2013. Firstly, as the Head of the Department of Economics at the Lviv Oblast Administration between 2009 and 2011./(website has automatic

Google Translate Google Translate is a multilingualism, multilingual neural machine translation, neural machine translation service developed by Google to translation, translate text, documents and websites from one language into another. It offers a web applic ...

option)''
Small biography of Denys Shmyhal
LIGA It is there where he met and worked with Oleh Nemchinov who would, in 2020, become Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers in the

Shmyhal Government The Shmyhal government () is the current government of Ukraine, formed on 4 March 2020 and led by Denys Shmyhal, who was previously serving as Deputy Prime Minister in the Honcharuk government, and the Governor of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. Shmyh ...

. Shmyhal then became the Head of the Department of Economics and Industrial Policy for the whole of 2012. In 2013, he was Head of the Department of Economic Development, Investment, Trade and Industry. For the first four months of 2014, Shmyhal was a consultant to a

People's Deputy of Ukraine A people's deputy of Ukraine (, ) is a member of parliament and legislator elected by Direct election, popular vote to the Verkhovna Rada, the parliament of Ukraine. They are often referred to simply as "deputies". Prior to 1991, the Verkhovna R ...

(from the party

UDAR The Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform of Vitali Klitschko (, using the acronym UDAR Vitali Klitschko () translates to "strike" or "punch", ) is a Political parties in Ukraine, political party in Ukraine headed by retired

). From May 2014 to December 2014, Shmyhal worked as Deputy Head of the Lviv Oblast regional office of the Ministry of Revenues and Duties. In the

2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election Fourteen or 14 may refer to: * 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15 * one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014 Music * 14th (band), a British electronic music duo * ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013 *''14'', an un ...

Shmyhal was an independent candidate in Ukraine's 121st electoral district, located in

. He gained 188 votes. ( Bohdan Matkivskyi won the district with 26,924 votes.) In the 2015 Ukrainian local elections Shmyhal was a candidate for the Lviv Oblast Council of . Although "People's Control" did win five seats in this regional parliament, Shmyhal himself did not get elected. He served as Vice President of

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

-based frozen goods distributor TVK Lvivkholod from 2015 to 2017. From 2018 to 2019, Shmyhal served as Director of the Burshtyn TES which is the largest electricity producer in

Ivano-Frankivsk Ivano-Frankivsk (, ), formerly Stanyslaviv, Stanislav and Stanisławów, is a city in western Ukraine. It serves as the administrative centre of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast as well as Ivano-Frankivsk Raion within the oblast. Ivano-Frankivsk also host ...

, and is part of Rinat Akhmetov's holdings. From 1 August 2019 until his prime ministerial appointment, Shmyhal was the Governor of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. Joe Biden and Denys Shmyhal at the White House to talk about Russian invasion

Joe Biden and Denys Shmyhal at the White House to talk about Russian invasion

On 4 February 2020, he was appointed Minister of Regional Development.

Prime Minister of Ukraine

Shmyhal replaced Oleksiy Honcharuk as the prime minister of Ukraine in March 2020. In 2021, Shmyhal was included in the list of the 100 most influential Ukrainians, according to the weekly magazine ''Focus''. He was ranked 7th in the list. In January 2024, Ukraine's

National Agency on Corruption Prevention The National Agency on Corruption Prevention (, НАЗК, NACP) is a national anti-corruption agency of the Ukrainian government which is responsible for shaping and implementing anti-corruption policy, while creating an environment conducive ...

accused Shmyhal of exposing the identity of a

whistleblower Whistleblowing (also whistle-blowing or whistle blowing) is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe, unethical or ...

who had reported wrongdoing by the head of the Commission for Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries. If Shymhal is found guilty of exposing the identity of a corruption whistleblower, he would be fined and denied the right to hold certain government positions for one year, and be included in the Unified State Register of persons who have committed corruption-related offenses. The prime minister's spokesperson responded, saying that it was not a whistleblower complaint about corruption, but rather, an appeal from an employee about their dissatisfaction with the work of the head of the Commission for Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries and contained no information about anything pertaining to corruption. Shymhal received the appeal in September 2023, and had handled it according to protocol.

Personal life

Shmyhal is married to Kateryna Shmyhal. They have two daughters. Kateryna is a former co-owner of the

“Kamyanetsky Bakery” and a local nextbike bike rental outlet. She sold her shares in these companies in 2019.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shmyhal, Denys 1975 births Living people Businesspeople from Lviv Politicians from Lviv Prime ministers of Ukraine Vice prime ministers of Ukraine Regional development and construction ministers of Ukraine Governors of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Independent politicians in Ukraine Ukrainian accountants Lviv Polytechnic alumni 20th-century Ukrainian businesspeople 21st-century Ukrainian businesspeople 21st-century Ukrainian politicians Pro-Ukrainian people of the Russian invasion of Ukraine