Yevgeny Solntsev

Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Solntsev (; born 1980) is a Russian politician who serves as governor of Orenburg Oblast since September 2025. He previously served as Prime Minister of the Donetsk People's Republic from 2023 to 2025 and First Deputy Prime Minister from 2022 to 2023. Prior to entering politics, he was a railways manager.

Biography

Early life and education Solntsev was born in 1980 in Voronezh in the Voronezh Oblast.

In 2002, he graduated from the Voronezh State Institute of Architecture and Civil Engineering with a degree in industrial and civil construction, and in 2010, he completed his postgraduate studies at the Moscow State University of Civil Engineering (MGSU). Solntsev is a Candidate of Technical Sciences. In 2010, he defended his dissertation at Moscow State University of Civil Engineering on the topic "Methodological foundations for the territorial and spatial development of objects of Olympic settlements (on the example of the transport infrastructure of the Olympic objects in Sochi)". After graduation, he worked as a foreman.

On 30 March 2023, Denis Pushilin, Acting Head of the Donetsk People's Republic, appointed Solntsev head of the government of the DPR by his decree. The former prime minister, Vitaliy Khotsenko, was appointed acting governor of the Omsk Oblast on 29 March. On 26 March 2025, Solntsev was appointed as acting governor of Orenburg Oblast.

Awards Solntsev was awarded the Order of Honour (2014), Russian Federation Presidential Certificate of Honour (2018).