Denys Shmyhal

Denys Anatoliiovych Shmyhal (born 15 October 1975) is a Ukrainian politician and entrepreneur who served as the 18th prime minister of Ukraine from 2020 to 2025. He has served as the First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and the Minister of Energy of Ukraine since 14 January 2026, previously serving as the minister of defence from 2025 to 2026, as governor of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast from 2019 to 2020 and as an acting deputy prime minister in the Honcharuk government. On 15 July 2025, Shmyhal submitted his resignation, a day after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced a government reshuffle and proposed replacing Shmyhal with Yulia Svyrydenko as prime minister. His tenure as prime minister of over five years was the longest in Ukrainian history. After Svyrydenko took office, he was appointed as the defence minister. In 1997, Shmyhal graduated from the Lviv Polytechnic university. He holds the PhD-equivalent title of Candidate of Economic Sciences.

Early career From his graduation in 1997 until September 2005, Shmyhal worked as an accountant in various companies. 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. Shmyhal then became the Head of the Department of Economics and Industrial Policy for the whole of 2012. )

In the 2015 Ukrainian local elections Shmyhal was a candidate for the Lviv Oblast Council of .

He served as Vice President of Lviv-based frozen goods distributor TVK Lvivkholod from 2015 to 2017.

From 1 August 2019 until his prime ministerial appointment, Shmyhal was the Governor of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. thumb

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. 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.

On 14 July 2025, Zelenskyy announced his plan to replace Shmyhal with Yulia Svyrydenko as prime minister as part of a government reshuffle; Zelenskyy suggested that Shmyhal might become defense minister. Shmyhal resigned as prime minister the next day,

Minister of Defense of Ukraine On 17 July 2025, the Verkhovna Rada approved Zelenskyy's proposal to appoint Shmyhal as Minister of Defense of Ukraine.

First Deputy Prime Minister — Minister of Energy of Ukraine On 14 January 2026, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved Shmyhal as First Deputy Prime Minister — Minister of Energy of Ukraine.

Personal life Shmyhal is married to Kateryna Shmyhal. They have two daughters. Kateryna is a former co-owner of the Kamyanetsky Bakery in Lviv and a local Nextbike bike rental outlet. She sold her shares in these companies in 2019.