Yulia Marushevska

Yulia Marushevska (, born 2 October 1989) is a Ukrainian activist and civil servant. A graduate student in literature and history, she appeared in a short video, entitled I Am a Ukrainian, which went viral after being posted in February 2014. In the spring of 2014, she gave talks about the cause of Ukrainian freedom in the United States and Canada and was interviewed by news media from dozens of countries.

In June 2015, a 24-year-old Marushevska joined the Odesa Oblast government team led by Mikheil Saakashvili, a former President of Georgia who was appointed a Governor of the Oblast. Marushevska was then appointed chief of Odesa Customs in October 2015 and resigned from that post in November 2016 because she felt the then Groysman government made custom reforms no longer possible.

Early life and education Yulia Marushevska was born on 2 October 1989 in the village of in Voznesensk Raion, Mykolaiv Oblast, southern Ukraine. She was raised in the village of Sadove in Tatarbunary Raion, Odesa Oblast. "I grew up as an ordinary, Western child," she told the Stanford Daily in an April 2014 interview. She is a Ph.D. candidate in literature and history at Taras Shevchenko University in Kyiv.

Marushevska was not politically active prior to the protests, "but when the government stopped an agreement with the EU I was very frustrated." She decided to take part in the Euromaidan protests, taking to the streets "from the very beginning of the protests." She worked as a volunteer on a phone hotline and worked as a guard in a hospital from which injured protesters had been kidnapped by police and put in prison. Marushevska was a student teacher and took her students to the Maidan during the protests "to study Ukraine there, not in the classroom."

Career I Am a Ukrainian

Making the video The video was shot by British cinematographer Graham Mitchell and posted by American filmmaker Ben Moses, producer of the film Good Morning Vietnam.

She told Voice of America that "we are not just fighting for another president, we are fighting for a normal human life, on a normal social level, with normal values." "People are not planning to leave Independence Square because they feel responsible now," she said in March 2014. "I am optimistic about the future. I believe we will build a normal, prosperous, democratic society but I am realistic about how much work we have ahead. Maybe we will have to become even stronger because this is only the first step. There are hundreds of steps ahead." Ben Moses said that the Russians were "terrified" by the video's impact and had begun to attack her character.

Marushevska spoke at the ICC Auditorium at Georgetown University on April 2, 2014. Moses appeared with her, and talked about the role of social media in the Ukrainian protests. Georgetown's student newspaper, the Hoya reported that "Attendees came away impressed by Marushevska's poise in delivering her message, and her ability to convey the emotions felt by everyday Ukrainians." On April 8, she spoke at Stanford University. She was interviewed on Charlie Rose on April 10. On April 16, she participated in a panel discussion, Rights, Repression, and Revolution: A Tale of Two Countries – Ukraine and Venezuela, at Harvard University.

In Canada, she appeared on Sun News and spoke at a rally outside Toronto City Hall. She expressed the Ukrainian people's gratitude for international support and about the importance of this support in helping boost Ukrainian people's morale and overcome their fear. She expressed her respect for the Russian people and her hope that they, too, would win their fight for freedom, and said that the Ukrainians would be on their side.

She spoke at the Oslo Freedom Forum on October 21, 2014. According to Mikheil Saakashvili, Marushevska had previously spent a year of training at Harvard and Stanford universities. On June 23, he announced his appointment of Marushevska as head of a newly created Investment agency of the Odesa regional government.

On 16 October 2015, President Petro Poroshenko announced that Marushevska would serve as the head of Odesa customs. Commenting in May 2016, Saakashvili said, "Nobody took her seriously when she was appointed. ... But she has this grit to really change things."

Marushevska clashed with the head of the State Fiscal Service, Roman Nasirov, who has been implicated in corruption. Marushevska resigned as custom head on 14 November 2016, saying "The government doesn't have the political will to conduct the reform of the Customs service. Kyiv doesn't have a vision of the reforms". In December, Nasirov said that he was investigating Marushevska for corruption. She stated that his accusations were politically-motivated and that officials interested in preserving the status quo had blocked her work, including attempts to dismiss corrupt officials.