MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st March, 2019) Yulia Tymoshenko, former Ukrainian prime minister and head of the Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party, is one of the frontrunners of the Ukrainian presidential race.
Tymoshenko was born on November 27, 1960, in the Soviet Ukrainian city of Dnepropetrovsk, which is now named Dnipro.
In 1984, she graduated from the Economics Faculty of the Dnepropetrovsk State University with a specialization of economist-cybernetic. She is also a PhD in economics.
After graduation, she worked as an engineering economist at the Dnepropetrovsk Machine-Building Plant named after Lenin.
In 1989-1991, Tymoshenko was a commercial director of the Terminal youth center.
In 1991-1995, she worked as director general at Ukrainskyi Benzyn (Ukrainian petrol Company, KUB) corporation, which was buying and selling fuel and lubricants.
From November 1995 to 1996, Tymoshenko was the president of financial and industrial corporation United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU).
From 1997 to 1998, she was a member of the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, of the second convocation, and from 1998 to 2000, she was a member of the Verkhovna Rada of the third convocation.
In 1998, she headed the Budget Committee of the Verkhovna Rada.
In 1999, Tymoshenko, together with other politicians, including the current Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov, created the Batkivshchyna party. She became its chair and the leader of the Batkivshchyna parliamentary group in the Verkhovna Rada.
From December 1999 to January 2001, Tymoshenko was the deputy prime minister for fuel and energy. Tymoshenko resigned as the deputy prime minister after the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine opened a criminal case against her.
In February 2001, Tymoshenko was arrested over allegations that her company UESU was "smuggling Russian gas to Ukraine" in 1995-1997.
In March 2001, the Pechersk District Court of Kiev canceled the detention warrant, finding the accusations against her to be unjustified.
On February 9, 2001, Tymoshenko initiated creation of the Forum of National Salvation (FNS) and headed the organization. The FNS was a public association that consisted of several opposition parties.
In November 2001, the FNS was renamed the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (BYuT).
As the head of the BYuT, Tymoshenko ran for the parliament in March 2002. According to the results of the elections, the BYuT received more than 20 out of more than 430 seats in the Verkhovna Rada.
From May 2002 to February 2005, she was member of the Verkhovna Rada of the fourth convocation.
In 2004, the BYuT and the Our Ukraine bloc, headed by Viktor Yushchenko, created the People's Self-Defense coalition to support Yushchenko's candidacy in the presidential election in Ukraine.
In November-December 2004, Tymoshenko became one of the leaders of the so-called Orange Revolution.
From February to September 2005, she was Ukrainian prime minister.
At the parliamentary elections of March 26, 2006, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc received 129 seats out of 450, ranking second after the Party of Regions.
In the September 2007 snap elections to the Verkhovna Rada, the BYuT won 30.71 percent of the vote, and, after creating the Orange Coalition with the Our Ukraine - People's Self-Defense bloc, received a parliamentary majority.
On December 18, 2007, Tymoshenko once again headed the Ukrainian government.
In early 2010, Tymoshenko ran for the president of Ukraine. According to the results of the second round of voting, which was held on February 7, she lost to Viktor Yanukovych with a gap of 3.48 percent of votes.
On March 3, 2010, the Ukrainian parliament dissolved the government headed by Tymoshenko. After that Tymoshenko announced that her party would join the opposition.
In 2010, a number of criminal cases, including the so-called "gas case," were brought against Tymoshenko. She was accused of causing damage to the state budget in the amount of 100 billion hryvnia ($3.5 billion). In addition, on April 11, 2011, Ukraine's then-deputy prosecutor general Renat Kuzmin announced the decision to open a new criminal case against Tymoshenko, as "she abused her power and exceeded her official authority in concluding the gas agreements with Russia in 2009."
In October 2011, a Kiev court found Tymoshenko guilty and sentenced her to seven years in prison. In December 2011, she was sent to a prison the country's Kharkiv Region.
Since May 2012, she was outside the prison, undergoing treatment at a hospital in Kharkiv.
On February 22, 2014, the Verkhovna Rada decriminalized the articles of the Criminal Code under which Tymoshenko was sentenced. Tymoshenko was released on the same day.
On March 29, 2014, the Batkivshchyna party officially nominated Tymoshenko as its candidate for the snap presidential election.
On May 25, 2014, Tymoshenko lost to Petro Poroshenko. She gained 12.81 percent of the vote, while Poroshenko secured almost 55 percent.
On October 26, 2014, Ukraine held Verkhovna Rada snap elections and the Batkivshchyna party entered the Ukrainian parliament, with Tymoshenko becoming the head of the party's parliamentary group. Tymoshenko is a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on European Integration and Committee on Human Rights, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations.
On January 22, 2019, the Batkivshchyna party congress announced its decision to nominate Tymoshenko as a presidential candidate.
On January 25, 2019, the Ukrainian Central Election Commission (CEC) registered her as a presidential candidate.
Tymoshenko's declared income for 2017 amounted to 560,000 hryvnias ($20,540).
Since 1979, Tymoshenko has been married to Oleksandr Tymoshenko. She has a daughter, Yevhenia, who was born in 1980.
