Zelensky appoints dealmaker PM after purge of tainted ministers
Yulia Svyrydenko, 39, is the second female premier in the country's history, as well as its second youngest. She replaces Denys Shmyhal, 49, in a sweeping reshuffle designed by President Zelensky to shore up support from international partners while retaining old-guard loyalists.
As minister for the economy, Svyrydenko won praise for negotiating the deal with the US and leading a delegation at last week's Ukraine Recovery Conference that won pledges of billions of dollars in support from the country's allies. She is expected to build on good relations with Scott Bessent, the US Treasury secretary, to steady Kyiv's rollercoaster alliance with the White House.
'She's young, dynamic, and has experience having difficult talks with the US and other governments,' said Oleskiy Haran, a professor in politics at the Kyiv-Mohyla academy, Ukraine's leading university. 'She has experience with this agreement on critical minerals, which wasn't easy.'
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