Denys Shmyhal, Vice Prime Minister - Minister of Energy of Ukraine.
2020–2025 – Prime Minister of Ukraine
Place of birth
He was born in Lviv on October 15, 1975.
Education
In 1997, he graduated from Lviv Polytechnic State University, majoring in management in the production field (mechanical engineering), and he is an engineer-economist. Candidate of Economic Sciences (2003).
Career
He has a diverse work biography; according to Shmyhal himself, his workbook has more than 60 entries.
He started working as a manager before graduating from university, and then, until 2003, he held accounting positions in various companies: the department of non-trading operations of currency management of the Elektronbank JSC; Lviv Bus Plant (LAZ) OJSC; before its privatization; Z-Torhovyi Dim CJSC; and LA DIS LLC.
In 2003-2005, he returned to LAZ after its purchase by Russian businessman Ihor Churkin. There, he worked as the head of the financial department and the director for economic and strategic development.
In 2006-2008, he held the position of director of economics at the development company Comfort-Invest, which was part of the Comfort Group that belonged to Lviv City Council members Volodymyr Kadushkevych and Taras Sosnovskyi.
Then, for a year, from September 2008 to September 2009, he worked as the director general of the ROSANINVEST LLC, which was engaged in the development division of the business belonging to the Rosan group of the Lviv businessman Rostyslav Kisil, whose most famous company is the logistics and postal operator Meest-Invest (later Meest Group).
In September 2009, during the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko, Shmyhal became the assistant to the head of the Lviv Regional State Administration, Rostyslav Kmit, and then the head of the economy department and later the respective administration. He worked in that position after the victory of Viktor Yanukovych in the presidential election and the change of the leadership of the Regional State Administration. Not only did he hold the position, but he also worked in it up until December 2013 (with a break of eight months in 2011), resigning after the start of Euromaidan. In total, he worked with six heads of the Lviv Regional State Administration.
After the victory of the Revolution of Dignity in May-December 2014, he worked as the deputy head of the main department of the Ministry of Revenue and Duties of Ukraine in the Lviv Region.
Then, he returned to business.
For two years, from January 2015 to January 2017, he worked in managerial positions at the Lvivholod company of Lviv businessman Bohdan Kozak, developing the Rukavychka and Pid Bokom retail chains there.
In January 2017, he began working at Rinat Akhmetov's DTEK Zakhidenergo as deputy director general for social affairs and director of the Burshtynska thermal power plant. That is why, after entering the government, journalists called Shmyhal "an Akhmetov's man," to which he replied that he got into DTEK by open tender, and we can see that Akhmetov's companies are only a small part of Shmyhal's biography.
After the victory of Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the presidential elections, he became a candidate for the post of head of the Lviv Regional State Administration, but on August 1, 2019, he headed another region - Ivano-Frankivsk.
Then, Denys Shmyhal's political career developed at a breakneck pace. On February 4, 2020, he became the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Communities and Territorial Development, and a month later, on March 4, 2020, he became the Prime Minister of Ukraine.
Most of the ministers with whom he began his work as the head of the government had already changed, but Shmyhal himself was able to hold on to his position, avoiding loud statements and conflicts with the Presidential Office, its head Andrii Yermak, and personally with Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
On July 15, 2025, he resigned from the post of Prime Minister, and on July 16, the Verkhovna Rada approved this decision.
On July 17, 2025, he was appointed Minister of Defense of Ukraine.
On January 13, 2026, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine accepted Denys Shmyhal's resignation from the post of Minister of Defense of Ukraine, and on January 14, it approved him as Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Energy of Ukraine in the new composition of the Government.
Critics
According to the information of ex-MP Ihor Mosiichuk, in June 2023, criminal proceedings were initiated against Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal by the prosecutor of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SACPO) for the alleged illegal withdrawal of USD 10 million from Ukraine.
The media, especially after the full-scale invasion, wrote about the secondary role of the Shmyhal government in decision-making compared to the Presidential Office. The former executive director of the National Reform Council under the President of Ukraine, investment banker, and anti-corruption activist Mariya Barabash said that the government removed itself from solving the country's economic problems during a full-scale war, and, in fact, handed over the management of the government to the Presidential Office and individual representatives of the parliament.
The press accused Shmyhal of neglecting the interests of the people by raising tariffs and engaging in ostentatious deregulation at points of no particular importance while more important business problems remain unsolved.
Shmyhal and internet memes
Denys Shmyhal looks very similar to the head of the European Council, Charles Michel. Many Internet memes were created based on this.
Family
Shmyhal has been married since 1998 and has two daughters - Anna and Sofiya. According to the media, his wife, Kateryna, was a co-founder of Kamianetska Pekarnia LLC, which was liquidated at the beginning of 2019.
In 2016-2017, Kateryna Shmyhal had a small stake in Nextbike Ukraine LLC, which develops bicycle rental networks in Ukrainian cities.
The ultimate beneficiary of Nextbike Ukraine is the Lviv businessman Zinovii Kozytskyi, the father of the head of the Lviv Regional State Administration, Maksym Kozytskyi.