Prime Minister of Ukraine

The prime minister of Ukraine is the head of government of Ukraine. The prime minister presides over the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, which is the highest body of the executive branch of the Ukrainian government. The position replaced the Soviet post of chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR, which was established on March 25, 1946. Since Ukrainian independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, there have been sixteen prime ministers, or twenty, counting acting prime ministers. Yulia Tymoshenko was the first woman appointed as prime minister in the history of Ukraine. Arseniy Yatsenyuk was the first prime minister who came from Western Ukraine. Two prime ministers were born in the Russian SFSR. The current prime minister is Denys Shmyhal, who was sworn in on 4 March 2020 following the resignation of Oleksiy Honcharuk. Appointment The prime minister is appointed by the president with the consent of the Verkhovna Rada. The consent is deemed granted by the parliament when a simple majority of its constitutional membership votes in favour of the candidate nominated by the president. The highest parliamentary approval to date was received by Yulia Tymoshenko who was appointed the prime minister on February 4, 2005, with 373 votes in the Verkhovna Rada. Other prime ministers who received more than 300 votes were Arseniy Yatsenyuk (371), Yatsenyuk again in 2014 (341) Vitold Fokin (332), and Leonid Kuchma (316).