Alyona Ivanivna Shkrum (, born 2 January 1988) is a Ukrainian politician, lawyer, human rights activist, public figure. She was from 2014 to December 2024 a member of the

Verkhovna Rada The Verkhovna Rada ( ; VR), officially the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, is the unicameralism, unicameral parliament of Ukraine. It consists of 450 Deputy (legislator), deputies presided over by a speaker. The Verkhovna Rada meets in the Verkhovn ...

(Ukraine's national parliament) for the

All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" The All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" (), referred to as Batkivshchyna (), is a political party in Ukraine led by People's Deputy of Ukraine, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. As the core party of the former Yulia Tymoshenko Blo ...

. On 3 December 2024 she was appointed Deputy-Minister of Communities and Territories Development.

Early life and education

Shkrum studied law at

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv The Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (; also known as Kyiv University, Shevchenko University, or KNU) is a public university in Kyiv, Ukraine. The university is the third-oldest university in Ukraine after the University of Lviv and ...

, has an

MA degree A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

in law from the

Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University (), also known as Paris 1 (or Paris I) and Panthéon-Sorbonne University (or, together with Sorbonne University and Sorbonne Nouvelle University, simply as the Sorbonne), is a Public university, public rese ...

and from Trinity Hall at

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. In 2008-2009 served as a Junior Associate at Volkov Koziakov and Partners Law Firm (Kyiv), in 2010-2011 was an associate at the Chevalier Pericard Connesson Bar Association (Paris).Alyona Shkrum biography
(access date 20 April 2023) In 2012 worked as an assistant to the attorneys of the law firms belonging to the Inner Temple Association (London). In 2013 completed internship in the office of

Peter Julian Peter S. Julian (born April 16, 1962) is a Canadian politician who was a Member of Parliament for the New Democratic Party (NDP) from 2004 to 2025. He represented the ridings of Burnaby—New Westminster from 2004 to 2015 and New Westminste ...

, Member of the House of Commons of the Canadian Parliament. Before entering the parliament, served as an advocacy expert at the Right to Protection (Kyiv). This organisation is an implementing partner of the

UNCHR The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the United Nations System, overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a ...

Political career

Before being elected

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 ...

Shkrum worked as a

parliamentary assistant In British politics and some Commonwealth nations, a parliamentary assistant is an unelected partisan staff member employed by a Member of Parliament (MP) to assist them with their parliamentary duties. Parliamentary assistants usually work ...

for of (fellow) politician Iryna Herashchenko and Igor Alekseyev in the

7th Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the 7th convocation (, ) was a convocation of the legislative branch of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's Unicameralism, unicameral parliament. Its composition was based on the results of the 2012 Ukrainian parliament ...

(2012 – 2014).Small biography on Alyona Shkrum

Civil movement "Chesno" Chesno () is a Ukrainian public campaign that emerged late 2011 to advance a fair election process. It is widely known for its critical analysis and evaluation of politicians and the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) in Ukraine. The organization provi ...

(access date 21 April 2023) In 2014, Shkrum was elected to the

(Ukraine's national parliament) on the party list (placed 5th) of

Batkivshchyna The All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" (), referred to as Batkivshchyna (), is a political party in Ukraine led by People's Deputy of Ukraine, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. As the core party of the former Yulia Tymoshenko B ...

. She was included in the party's electoral list in an open competition as a member of the Professional Government initiative. Shkrum was re-elected for the same party (placed 22nd this time) in the

2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine on 21 July 2019. Originally scheduled to be held at the end of October, the elections were brought forward after newly inaugurated President of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dissolved parli ...

The
8th Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the 8th convocation (, ) was a convocation of the legislative branch of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's unicameral parliament. The 8th convocation met at the Verkhovna Rada building in Kyiv, having begun its term ...

Shkrum served as: * Deputy member of the Ukrainian part of the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee * Member of the

Inter-Parliamentary Union The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU; , UIP) is an international organization of national parliaments. Its primary purpose is to promote democratic governance, accountability, and cooperation among its members; other initiatives include advancing g ...

Standing Committee on Peace and International Security. The main achievement of the work in the IPU Committee was the development of the text, amendments and presentation of the Resolution from Ukraine at the 140th IPU Assembly in Doha. It was the first Ukrainian resolution in the 130 years of the organization's existence: "On non-admissibility of using mercenaries and foreign fighters as a means of undermining peace, international security and the territorial integrity of States, and violating human rights". * Co-chair of the group on inter-parliamentary relations with

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

* Member of the groups on inter-parliamentary relations with

the United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

The
9th Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the 9th convocation (, ) is the current convocation of the legislative branch of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's Unicameralism, unicameral parliament. The 9th convocation meets at the Verkhovna Rada building in Kyiv ...

In 2019 Shkrum was reelected, she served as: * Member of the governing body (Bureau) of the Committee on Peace and International Security of the

* Co-chair of the group on inter-parliamentary relations with

* Secretary of the groups on inter-parliamentary relations with

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and

the United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

* Member of the groups on inter-parliamentary relations with

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

and

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

On 2 December 2024 Shkrum officially requested the deprivation of her parliamentary mandate. The following day parliament withdrew her mandate. Later that day she was appointed Deputy-Minister of Communities and Territories Development.

Since the beginning of the
Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

Shkrum has been a member to a number of parliamentary delegations: *

: had meetings with the Prime Minister

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He wa ...

, British politicians, Secretary of State for Defense Ben Wallace, Home Secretary

Priti Patel Dame Priti Sushil Patel (born 29 March 1972) is a British politician who has served as Shadow Foreign Secretary since November 2024, having previously served as Home Secretary from 2019 to 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, she was Secr ...

; discussions on arms supplies and closure of Ukrainian airspace, coordination of the UK program

Homes for Ukraine Homes for Ukraine is a British government scheme started in 2022, which allows households in the UK to provide accommodation for Ukrainian refugees displaced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. History On 24 February 2022, Russia launched an ...

. *

: had meetings with President of France

Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra since 2017. He was Ministry of Economy and Finance (France), Minister of Economics, Industr ...

, President of the French Senate Gerard Larcher, Mayor of Paris

Anne Hidalgo Ana María "Anne" Hidalgo Aleu (, ; born 19 June 1959) is a Spanish-French politician who has served as Mayor of Paris since 2014, the first woman to hold the office. She is a member of the Socialist Party (France), Socialist Party (PS). Hidalg ...

; participation in the meeting of the Assembly of the

Francophonie The Francophonie or Francophone world is the whole body of people and organisations around the world who use the French language regularly for private or public purposes. The term was coined by Onésime Reclus in 1880 and became important a ...

. *

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

: had meetings with President of the European Parliament

Roberta Metsola Roberta Metsola (; ; born 18 January 1979) is a Malta, Maltese politician who has served as the president of the European Parliament since January 2022. She is a member of Malta's Nationalist Party (Malta), Nationalist Party (PN) and the European ...

, Chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality

Robert Biedroń Robert Biedroń (; born 13 April 1976) is a Polish politician, former mayor of Słupsk, and LGBT activist who has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2019. He is the Chair of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equal ...

, NATO Secretary General's Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security Irene Fellin and others. *

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...

in Davos: gave speeches at 3 panels, 1 roundtable, 2 closed events, 1 special discussion at Ukraine House, had meetings with President of Latvia

Egils Levits Egils Levits (born 30 June 1955) is a Latvian politician, lawyer, political scientist and jurist who served as the tenth president of Latvia from 2019 to 2023. He was a List of members of the European Court of Justice, member of the European Cour ...

, Prime Minister of Croatia

Andrej Plenković Andrej Plenković ( ; born 8 April 1970) is a Croatian politician serving as the Prime Minister of Croatia, prime minister of Croatia since October 2016. He was previously one of eleven List of members of the European Parliament for Croatia, 201 ...

and others. *

Inter-parliamentary Union The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU; , UIP) is an international organization of national parliaments. Its primary purpose is to promote democratic governance, accountability, and cooperation among its members; other initiatives include advancing g ...

: during the 145th Assembly of the organization in

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

in October 2022, participated in the preparation of the final resolution condemning Russian aggression against Ukraine; accepted the Inter-Parliamentary Union Award for MPs and the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada; during the 146th Assembly in

Bahrain Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...

in March 2023, she took part in a series of meetings with the states of the

Global South Global North and Global South are terms that denote a method of grouping countries based on their defining characteristics with regard to socioeconomics and politics. According to UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Global South broadly com ...

and was one of the organizers of an event on demining the territories of Ukraine, which was attended by 25 countries; at the same time, a resolution was adopted on the protection of civilians in the context of a humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine.

Political stance during the war

* Shkrum is one of the activists of the #UnrussiaUN movement and the petition "Kick Russia out of the UN" aimed at depriving the Russian Federation of its membership in the UN, which is illegitimate in view of Russia's war against Ukraine (according to Article 4 of the

UN Charter The Charter of the United Nations is the foundational treaty of the United Nations (UN). It establishes the purposes, governing structure, and overall framework of the United Nations System, UN system, including its United Nations System#Six ...

) and the absence of a procedure for the country's accession to the organization after the collapse of the USSR. She expressed her position in an article in

TIME Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

, noting, in particular, that "without restoring the rule of law within its own organization, the UN will become more and more irrelevant, just as the League of Nations did when it failed to react to the Third Reich’s invasion of Poland in 1939." She also called for Russia's expulsion from the UN in an article published in

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

. * She took an active part in the #bloodytrade campaign, addressed to Western companies that did not leave the Russian market after the start of a full-scale war against Ukraine. One of the achievements was the closure of

Decathlon The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of 10 track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ἄθλος (''áthlos'', or ἄ ...

stores in Russia, while

Auchan Auchan () is a French multinational retail group headquartered in Croix, France. It was founded in 1961 by Gérard Mulliez and is owned by the Mulliez family, who has 95% stake in the company. With 354,851 employees, of which 261,000 have 5% ...

and

Leroy Merlin Leroy Merlin () is a French-headquartered home improvement and gardening retailer serving several countries in Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa. Leroy Merlin is owned by the Mulliez family, which also owns Auchan. History In 1923, ...

refused to leave Russia. In addition, considerable attention was paid to the issue of not including the Russian state-owned diamond producer

ALROSA Alrosa () is a Russian group of diamond mining companies that specialize in exploration, mining, manufacture, and sale of diamonds. The company leads the world in diamond mining by volume. Mining takes place in Western Yakutia, the Arkhangels ...

in the EU sanctions packages against Russia 8 times in a row. * She was one of the initiators of the global LightUpUkraine campaign, which was held on December 21, 2022, in a number of countries, during which the lights were turned off for one hour in festive locations, government agencies, shops and homes of ordinary citizens in solidarity with Ukrainians suffering from Russian strikes on critical infrastructure. The campaign was aimed at raising $10 million for power generators for Ukrainian hospitals.

Family

Shkrum is married to

Dmytro Natalukha Dmytro Andriyovych Natalukha (; born 15 September 1987) is a Ukrainian politician and public figure with a background in banking and finance law, as well as in strategic communications. He was named as one of “100 most influential Ukrain ...

.
In the

Natalukha was a candidate for the party

Servant of the People Servant of the People (; ''SN'') is a Liberalism, liberal, Centrism, centrist, Pro-Europeanism, pro-European List of political parties in Ukraine, political party in Ukraine. Since both the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election and the 2019 Ukra ...

. Natalukha and Shkrum were both elected into parliament.

Awards and honors

Shkrum has been awarded multiple times. According to

Kyiv Post The ''Kyiv Post'' is Ukraine’s first and most prominent English-language newspaper. It was founded in 1995 in Kyiv by American businessman Jed Sunden. In 2018, the publication was acquired by prominent Ukrainian businessman Adnan Kivan, foun ...

, in 2016 she became one of the ‘Top 30 under 30’, the most successful Ukrainian people under the age of 30. The MP also holds the 2016 Diploma of the

Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine The Verkhovna Rada ( ; VR), officially the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, is the unicameralism, unicameral parliament of Ukraine. It consists of 450 Deputy (legislator), deputies presided over by a speaker. The Verkhovna Rada meets in the Verkhovn ...

for her significant personal contribution to the reform of local self-government. Shkrum was honored by NV magazine as she was included in the Top 100 Successful Women of Ukraine in 2018. In 2019 the Ukrainian public campaign

Chesno Chesno () is a Ukrainian public campaign that emerged late 2011 to advance a fair election process. It is widely known for its critical analysis and evaluation of politicians and the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) in Ukraine. The organization provi ...

named Shkrum one of the top 25 most honest MPs of the 8th Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shkrum, Alyona 1988 births Living people Lawyers from Kyiv 21st-century Ukrainian lawyers Eighth convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada Ninth convocation members of the Verkhovna Rada Batkivshchyna politicians Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge University of Paris alumni Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University alumni Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv alumni Ukrainian expatriates in France 21st-century Ukrainian women politicians 21st-century Ukrainian women lawyers Politicians from Kyiv Women members of the Verkhovna Rada