Yulia Kovaliv leaves President’s Office

Yulia Kovaliv, the deputy head of the President’s Office in charge of economic affairs, resigned on Dec. 22 of her own volition.

“It was an incredible experience and a great responsibility in a difficult time for the country,” Kovaliv said on Facebook.

Kovaliv has been serving as the deputy head of the president’s administration since Sept. 20, 2019. She was invited to the position by Andriy Bohdan, then President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, and was one of the very few top officials who stayed in the administration after Bohdan was replaced with Andriy Yermak in February. 

Yulia Svyrydenko, who currently serves as the deputy economy minister, will take Kovaliv’s place. 

Svyrydenko has served as the deputy economy minister since September 2019. Before that, she worked as the adviser of the head of Chernihiv Regional State Administration. She was also a member of the delegation of the Tripartite Contact Group for the Peaceful Settlement of the Situation in Eastern Ukraine, representing the working group on socio-economic issues.

Who is Yulia Kovaliv?

Kovaliv started her political career in 2010, leading a reform-focused advisory body under the administration of President Viktor Yanukovych.

Serving as the country’s first deputy economy minister in 2015-2016, Kovaliv focused on cooperation with foreign investors. She has also been in charge of developing new concession legislation since the summer of 2016.

In 2017-2019, she ran the Office of the National Investment Council, a nongovernmental organization associated with the administration of President Petro Poroshenko.

Several months after Zelensky became president in 2019, Kovaliv joined his administration, becoming one of the few officials who worked for both Poroshenko and Zelensky.

On Dec. 22, President Zelensky said that Kovaliv “made a significant contribution to the economic development of Ukraine.”

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The president mentioned that she helped Ukrainian people and businesses survive quarantine and attracted new investors, passed important laws, established close cooperation with international financial organizations — in particular, with the International Monetary Fund — and helped develop the government’s program of low-interest loans for small businesses, known as the “5–7–9%” program.

Kovaliv has not yet revealed what she will do after leaving the administration.

“I will continue to work on making our country economically stronger, and helping the wellbeing of citizens to grow,” Kovaliv said. “And making us, Ukrainians, have more faith in ourselves, in our country, in our strength.”