Vitalii Rybak: The remarkable resurgence of Yulia Tymoshenko

By Vitalii Rybak.

Published April 12, 2018 at 5:53 pm

A woman smokes in front of an election placard of leader of the Batkivschyna party, Yulia Tymoshenko, in the center of Kiev, on October 24, 2014. Ukraine wraps up campaigning Friday for a weekend vote that will dramatically reshape parliament after a year of upheavals, as the deadly conflict with pro-Russian rebels drags on into its seventh month.

Photo by AFP

Yulia Tymoshenko tops Ukraine’s polls and may be the next president. But her status as the frontrunner was not a foregone conclusion.

A veteran of Ukrainian politics, Tymoshenko has been active since 1997 and her fortunes have waxed and waned. Over the years, she has assumed numerous roles: member of parliament, deputy prime minister, a leader of the Orange Revolution, prime minister, presidential candidate, and political prisoner. Tymoshenko has worked with three out of five of Ukraine’s presidents since independence—Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko, and Viktor Yanukovych.