Prime Minister of Ukraine
Prime Minister of Ukraine
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Prime Minister of Ukraine

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Prime Minister of Ukraine

The prime minister of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Прем'єр-міністр України, Premier-ministr Ukrainy, pronounced [preˌmjɛrmiˈn⁽ʲ⁾istr ʊkrɐˈjinɪ]) is the head of government of Ukraine. The prime minister presides over the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which is the highest body of the executive branch of the Ukrainian government. Following the 1991 Declaration of Independence of Ukraine the position replaced the Soviet post of chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR, which was established on March 25, 1946.

Yulia Tymoshenko was the first woman appointed as the prime minister in the history of Ukraine. Arseniy Yatsenyuk was the first prime minister who came from Western Ukraine. Two prime ministers were born in the Russian SFSR.

The current prime minister is Yulia Svyrydenko, who was confirmed by the Verkhovna Rada on 17 July 2025. She replaced Denys Shmyhal, who had been sworn in on 4 March 2020 following the resignation of Oleksiy Honcharuk. On 15 July 2025, Shmyhal submitted his resignation, a day after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced a government reshuffle and proposed replacing Shmyhal with Svyrydenko as prime minister.

The prime minister is appointed by the president with the consent of the Verkhovna Rada. The consent is deemed granted by the parliament when a simple majority of its constitutional membership votes in favour of the candidate nominated by the president. The highest parliamentary approval to date was received by Yulia Tymoshenko who was appointed the prime minister on February 4, 2005, with 373 votes in the Verkhovna Rada. Other prime ministers who received more than 300 votes were Arseniy Yatsenyuk (371), Yatsenyuk again in 2014 (341) Vitold Fokin (332), and Leonid Kuchma (316).

The procedure of granting consent by the parliament is usually preceded by several days of comprehensive consultations and interviews of the candidate by the parliamentary factions. The approval by the legislature is not a mere formality. Some candidates were ratified by a narrow margin and a candidate may be turned down. For instance, in 1999, Valeriy Pustovoitenko fell three votes short of being re-confirmed after he tendered his resignation at the second inauguration of President Leonid Kuchma in 1999. Kuchma chose Viktor Yushchenko as his alternative candidate. Another example is the approval of Yuriy Yekhanurov's candidacy (he fell three votes short of approval, but was confirmed on the second attempt two days later).

After the constitutional amendment of late 2004 and its reinstance in 2014, the president was restricted in their choice of prime minister and was virtually obliged to nominate the person proposed by the parliamentary coalition. The only exception is when the candidate cannot be nominated due to the violation in nomination procedure or the candidate's incompliance with the requirements established by the Constitution and the Ukrainian laws for the prime minister. In this case, the president informs the parliament about the impossibility of submitting a nomination for the proposed candidacy.

The prime minister, as with all members of executive branch, cannot be a member of parliament.

The prime minister heads Ukraine's executive branch of government, the Cabinet of Ministers, and signs decrees passed by the Cabinet.

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