Tymoshenko is the leader of the All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland", which was the largest opposition political party in Ukraine.

Tymoshenko strives for Ukraine’s integration into the European Union, strongly opposes the membership of Ukraine in the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia, and supports eradication of post-Soviet corrupt clans in Ukraine

Early life and career

Yulia Tymoshenko (born Hrihyan^[4][9][10]) was born 27 November 1960, in Dnipropetrovsk, Soviet Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union).^[11] Her mother, Lyudmila Telehina (née Nelepova), was born 11 August 1937, in Dnipropetrovsk.^[12] Her father, Volodymyr Abramovych Hrihyan— who abandoned Lyudmila Telehina and his daughter when Yulia was three years old^[13]—was born December 3, 1937, in Dnipropetrovsk and was according to his Soviet passport Latvian.^[12] His mother was Maria Yosypivna Hrihyan, born in 1909.^[12] His father was Abram Kelmanovych Kapitelman (Ukrainian: Абрам Кельманович Капітельман, born in 1914); after graduating from Dnipropetrovsk State University in 1940 Kapitalman was sent to work in Western Ukraine, where he worked "one academic quarter" as the director of a public Jewish school in the city Sniatyn.^[12] In the autumn of 1940 Kapitalman was mobilized into the army, he was killed while taking part in World War II on November 8, 1944, with the rank of "lieutenant communications".^[12]

Volodymyr left the family when Yulia was a year old, and Yulia was raised by her mother alone.^{[inconsistent][13]} Tymoshenko took the surname of her mother, "Telehina", before graduating from high school in 1977.^[13][14] In 1979, Yulia married Oleksandr Tymoshenko, son of a mid-level Soviet official.^[15] In 1980 their daughter Yevhenia (Eugenia) was born.

Education

In 1977 Tymoshenko graduated from high school with distinction (school № 37 in Dnipropetrovsk).

In 1978 Tymoshenko was enrolled in the Automatization and Telemechanics department of the Dnipropetrovsk Mining Institute.^[17] In 1979 she transferred to the Economic Department of the Dnipropetrovsk State University and majored in cybernetic engineering. In 1984 Tymoshenko graduated from the Dnipropetrovsk State University with first degree honors as an engineer-economist.^[18]

In 1999, she defended a PhD dissertation, entitled State Regulation of the tax system, at the Kiev National Economic University.

Business career

Tymoshenko has been a practicing economist and academic. Prior to her political career, she was a successful but controversial businesswoman in the gas industry, becoming by some estimates one of the richest people in the country. Before becoming Ukraine's first female Prime Minister in 2005,^[20] Tymoshenko co-led the Orange Revolution.^[21] She placed third in Forbes Magazine's List of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women 2005.

After graduating from the Dnipropetrovsk State University in 1984, Tymoshenko worked as an engineer-economist in a "Dnipro Machine-Building Plant" in Dnipropetrovsk until 1988 (the factory produced missiles).

In 1988, as part of the perestroika initiatives, Yulia and Oleksandr Tymoshenko borrowed 5000 Soviet rubles and opened a video rental cooperative, perhaps with the help of Oleksander's father Gennadi Tymoshenko, who presided over a regional film distribution network in the provincial council.

In 1989–1991, Yulia and Oleksandr Tymoshenko founded and headed a commercial video rental company, "Terminal", in Dnipropetrovsk, which grew to be quite successful.

In 1991, Tymoshenko established (jointly with her husband Oleksandr, Gennadi Tymoshenko and Olexandr Gravets)

 "The Ukrainian Petrol Corporation", a company that provided the agriculture industry of Dnipropetrovsk with fuel from 1991 to 1995. Tymoshenko worked as a General Director. In 1995, this company was reorganized into United Energy Systems of Ukraine. Tymoshenko was the president of United Energy Systems of Ukraine, a privately owned middleman company that became the main importer of Russian natural gas to Ukraine, from 1995 to January 1, 1997. During that time she was nicknamed the "gas princess". She was also accused of "having given Pavlo Lazarenko kickbacks in exchange for her company's stranglehold on the country's gas supplies", although Judge Martin Jenkins of the US District Court for the Northern District of California, on May 7, 2004, dismissed the allegations of money laundering and conspiracy regarding UESU, Somoli Ent. et al. (companies affiliated with Yulia Tymoshenko) in connection with Lazarenko’s activities.

During this period, Tymoshenko was involved in business relations (either co-operative or hostile) with many important figures of Ukraine. Tymoshenko also had to deal with the management of the Russian corporation, Gazprom. Yulia Tymoshenko claims that, under her management, UESU successfully solved significant economic problems: in 1995–1997, Ukraine’s multi-billion debt for Russian natural gas was paid; Ukraine resumed international cooperation in machine building, the pipe industry and construction; and Ukraine’s export of goods to Russia doubled. In the period 1995–1997, Tymoshenko was considered one of the richest business people in Ukraine.When Tymoshenko made her initial foray into national politics, her company became an instrument of political pressure on her and her family. As she said in one of her interviews, she refused to cooperate with Ukraine’s corrupt officials, thus her company was destroyed upon request from president Leonid Kuchma^{[citation needed]}. UESU top management faced prosecution. Since 1998, Tymoshenko has been one of the most important politicians in Ukraine. She was removed from the list of "100 richest Ukrainians" in 2006.

Political career

Early career

Yulia Tymoshenko entered politics in 1996, when she was elected to the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) in constituency #229, Bobrynets, Kirovohrad Oblast, winning a record 92.3% of the vote. In Parliament, Tymoshenko joined the Constitutional Centre faction. In February 1997 this centrists faction was 56 lawmakers strong and, according to Ukrayinska Pravda, it supported the policies of Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. In late November 1997, the General Prosecutor of Ukraine asked the Verkhovna Rada to lift Tymoshenko's parliamentary immunity, but the deputies voted against it. In late 1997, Tymoshenko called for the next Ukrainian Presidential elections to be held not in 1999, but in the fall of 1998.

Tymoshenko was re-elected in 1998, winning a constituency in the Kirovohrad Oblast, and was also number six on the party list of Hromada. She became an influential person in the parliament, and was appointed the Chair of the Budget Committee of the Verkhovna Rada. After Hromada's party leader Pavlo Lazarenko fled to theUnited States in February 1999 to avoid investigations for embezzlement, various faction members left Hromada to join other parliamentary factions, among them Tymoshenko, who set up the All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" faction in March 1999 in protest against the methods of Lazarenko^. "Fatherland" was officially registered as a political party in September 1999, and began to attract the voters who had voted for Yevhen Marchuk in the October 1999 presidential election. In 2000, "Fatherland" went in opposition to President Kuchma.

Deputy Prime Minister for fuel and energy

From late December 1999 to January 2001, Tymoshenko was the Deputy Prime Minister for the fuel and energy sector in the cabinet of Viktor Yushchenko. She officially left parliament on 2 March 2000. Under her guidance, Ukraine's revenue collections from the electricity industry grew by several thousand percent. She scrapped the practice of barter in the electricity market, requiring industrial customers to pay for their electricity in cash. She also terminated exemptions for many organizations which excluded them from having their power disconnected. Her reforms meant that the government had sufficient funds to pay civil servants and increase salaries. In 2000, Tymoshenko’s government provided an additional 18 billion Hryvna for social payments. Half of this amount was collected due to withdrawal of funds from shadow schemes, the ban on barter payments and the introduction of competition rules to the energy market.

On August 18, 2000, Oleksandr Tymoshenko, CEO of United Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU) and Yulia Tymoshenko’s husband, was detained and arrested. Tymoshenko herself stated that her husband’s arrest was the result of political pressure on her.

On January 19, 2001, president Leonid Kuchma ordered Yulia Tymoshenko to be dismissed. Then prime minister Viktor Yushchenko silently accepted her dismissal, despite her achievements in the energy sector. Ukrainian media called it "the first betrayal of Viktor Yushchenko". Soon after her dismissal, Tymoshenko took leadership of the National Salvation Committee and became active in the Ukraine without Kuchma protests.^[59] The movement embraced a number of opposition parties, such as Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, “Fatherland”, Ukrainian Republican Party, Ukrainian Conservative Republican Party, “Sobor”,Ukrainian Social-Democratic Party, Ukrainian Christian-Democratic Party and Patriotic Party.

Campaigns against Kuchma and 2002 election 

On 9 February 2001, Tymoshenko founded the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (the National Salvation Committee merged into it), a political bloc that received 7.2% of the vote in the2002 parliamentary election. She has been head of the Batkivshchina (Fatherland) political party since the party was organised in 1999.^[60]

On February 13, 2001, Tymoshenko was arrested and charged with forging customs documents and smuggling gas in 1997 (while president of United Energy Systems of Ukraine).^[23][59][61] Her political supporters organized numerous protest rallies near the Lukyanivska Prison where she was held in custody.

In March 2001, Pechersk District Court (Kiev) found the charges groundless and cancelled the arrest sanction. According to Tymoshenko, the charges were fabricated by Kuchma's regime at the behest of oligarchs threatened by her efforts to eradicate corruption and institute market-based reforms. On April 9, 2003, the Kiev Court of Appeal issued a ruling that invalidated and cancelled proceedings on the criminal cases against Yulia and Oleksandr Tymoshenko. Despite Tymoshenko being cleared of the charges, Moscow maintained an arrest warrant for her should she enter Russia. In 2005, all charges were declared groundless and lifted.

The criminal case was closed in Ukraine in January 2005 due to lack of evidence, and in Russia in December 2005 by reason of lapse of time. The case was reopened in Ukraineon 24 October 2011, after Yanukovych came to power.

Tymoshenko's husband, Oleksandr, spent two years (2002–2004) in hiding in order to avoid incarceration on charges the couple said were unfounded and politically motivated by the former Kuchma administration.

Once the charges were dropped, Tymoshenko reassumed her place among the leaders of the grassroots campaign against President Kuchma for his alleged role in the murder of the journalist Georgiy Gongadze. In this campaign, Tymoshenko first became known as a passionate, revolutionist leader, an example of this being a TV broadcast of her smashing prison windows during one of the rallies. At the time Tymoshenko wanted to organise a national referendum to impeach President Kuchma. 

On 11 August 2001, civilian and military prosecutors in Russia opened a new criminal case against Tymoshenko accusing her of bribery  On 27 December 2005, Russian prosecutors dropped these charges. Russian prosecutors had suspended an arrest warrant when she was appointed Prime Minister, but reinstated it after she was fired in September 2005. The prosecutors suspended it again when she came to Moscow for questioning^[73] on 25 September 2005.^[74] Tymoshenko didn't travel to Russia during her first seven months as Prime Minister (the first Tymoshenko Government). 

In January 2002, Tymoshenko was involved in a mysterious car accident that she survived with minor injuries – an episode some believe to have been a government assassination attempt.^[75] Her Mercedes, part of a four-vehicle convoy, collided with a Lada in Kiev. The driver of the other car suffered head injuries and police said initial investigations suggested that Tymoshenko's chauffeur had been at fault. 

Tymoshenko's Role in the Orange Revolution 

In the Autumn of 2001, both Tymoshenko and Viktor Yushchenko attempted to create a broad opposition bloc against the incumbent President, Leonid Kuchma, in order to win theUkrainian presidential election of 2004. 

In late 2002, Tymoshenko, Oleksandr Moroz (Socialist Party of Ukraine), Petro Symonenko (Communist Party of Ukraine) and Viktor Yushchenko (Our Ukraine) issued a joint statement concerning "the beginning of a state revolution in Ukraine". In the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, the communist party stepped out of the alliance, but the other parties remained allied and Symonenko was against a single candidate from the alliance^[ (until July 2006). 

In March 2004, Yulia Tymoshenko announced that leaders of “Our Ukraine”, BYuT and Socialist Party of Ukraine were working on a coalition agreement concerning joint participation in the presidential campaign. Tymoshenko decided not to run for president and give way to Viktor Yushchenko. On 2 July 2004, Our Ukraine and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc established the Force of the people, a coalition which aimed to stop "the destructive process that has, as a result of the incumbent authorities, become a characteristic for Ukraine." The pact included a promise by Viktor Yushchenko to nominate Tymoshenko as Prime Minister if Yushchenko should win the October 2004 presidential election. Tymoshenko was actively campaigning for Yushchenko, touring and taking part in rallies all over Ukraine. After Viktor Yushchenko had dropped out of the campaign due to his mysterious poisoning, Tymoshenko continued campaigning on his behalf. 

After the initial vote on October 31, two candidates – Viktor Yanukovych and Viktor Yushchenko – proceeded to a runoff. As Tymoshenko earlier envisaged, Yushchenko received endorsement from former competitors who didn’t make it to the runoff, such as Oleksandr Moroz (Socialist Party), Anatoliy Kinakh (Party of Industrials and Entrepreneurs), former Kyiv city mayor Oleksanrd Omelchenko and others.

On November 6, 2004, Tymoshenko asked people to spread the orange symbols (orange was the color of Yushchenko’s campaign). “Grab a piece of the cheapest orange cloth, make ribbons and put them everywhere” she said. “Don’t wait untill the campaign managers give those to you”.

When allegations of fraud began to spread, the “orange team” decided to conduct a parallel vote tabulation during the November 21, 2004 runoff and announce the results immediately to people on Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti) in Kyiv. Tymoshenko called Kyiv residents to gather on the square and asked people from other cities and towns to come and stand for their choice. “Bring warm clothes, lard and bread, garlic and onions and come to Kyiv” she said. On 22 November 2004, massive protests broke out in cities across Ukraine: The largest, in Kiev's Maidan Nezalezhnosti, attracted an estimated 500,000 participants.^[80] These protests became known as the Orange Revolution. On November 23, 2004, Tymoshenko led the participants of the protest to the President’s Administration. On Bankova Street, special riot police prevented the procession from go any further, so people lifted Tymoshenko up and she walked on the police’ shields to the Administration building.

On December 3, 2004, the Supreme Court of Ukraine invalidated the results of the runoff and scheduled the re-run for December 26, 2004. After the cancellation of Viktor Yanukovych's official victory and the second round of the election, Viktor Yushchenko was elected President with 51.99% of votes (Yanukovych received 44.2% support).^[81]

During the protests, Tymoshenko's speeches on Maidan kept the momentum of the street protests going.^[82] Her popularity grew significantly, and she was unofficially called the “Ukrainian Joan of Arc” and the “orange princess”.

After the Orange Revolution. First Term as Prime Minister 

On 24 January 2005, Tymoshenko was appointed acting Prime Minister of Ukraine under Yushchenko's presidency. On 4 February, Tymoshenko's premiership appointment was ratified by the parliament with an overwhelming majority of 373 votes (226 were required for approval).

The Tymoshenko cabinet did not have any other members of Tymoshenko’s party besides Tymoshenko herself andOleksandr Turchynov, who was appointed the chief of Security Service of Ukraine.^[84][85] The ministers who were working with her took her side in the later confrontation with Viktor Yushchenko.^{[citation needed][clarification needed]}

On 28 July, Forbes named Tymoshenko the third most powerful woman in the world, behind only Condoleezza Riceand Wu Yi.^[22] However, in the magazine's list published on 1 September 2006, Tymoshenko's name was not among the top 100.^[87]

Several months into her government  , internal conflicts within the post‐Revolution coalition began to damage Tymoshenko's administration.^[88][89][90] On August 24, 2005, Viktor Yushchenko gave an Independence Day speech during which he called Tymoshenko’s government “the best”.

Yet on 8 September, after the resignation of several senior officials, including the Head of the Security and Defense Council Petro Poroshenko  and Deputy Prime Minister Mykola Tomenko,  Yulia Tymoshenko's government was dismissed by President Viktor Yushchenko during a live television address to the nation. Yushchenko went on to criticize her work as head of the Cabinet, suggesting it had led to an economic slowdown and political conflicts within the ruling coalition.  He said that Tymoshenko was serving interests of some businesses, and the government’s decision to re-privatize the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant (previously owned by Leonid Kuchma’s son in law Viktor Pinchuk) “was the last drop” that made him dismiss the government.^[96] On September 13, 2005, Yushchenko accused Tymoshenko of betrayal of “Orange Revolution” ideas. In his interview for the Associated Press, he said that during the time of her presidency at UESU, Tymoshenko accumulated an 8 million Hryvna debt, and that she had used her authority as prime minister to write off that debt. Tymoshenko has repeatedly stated that the mentioned amount was not a debt, but fines imposed by the Tax Inspection in 1997–1998, and that all the cases regarding UESU had been closed before she became prime minister.

Tymoshenko blamed Yushchenko’s closest circle for scheming against her and undermining the activities of her Cabinet. She also criticised Yushchenko, telling the BBC that he had “practically ruined our unity, our future, the future of the country," and that the president’s action was absolutely illogical.

At the time, Tymoshenko saw a rapid growth of approval ratings, while president Yushchenko’s approval ratings went down. This tendency was later proved by the results of parliamentary elections in 2006, when for the first time ever BYuT outran “Our Ukraine” party, winning 129 seats vs. 81, respectively. During the previous parliamentary elections of 2002, BYuT had only 22 members of parliament, while “Our Ukraine” had 112.

The work of Yulia Tymoshenko as prime minister in 2005 was complicated due to internal conflicts in the “orange” team.^[100] According to Tymoshenko, President Yushchenko and Petro Poroshenko were trying to turn the National Security and Defense Council into the “second Cabinet of Ministers”

Tymoshenko was succeeded as Prime Minister by Yuriy Yehanurov.

Opposition (2005–2007) and 2006 parliamentary election

Soon after Tymoshenko’s discharge in September 2005, the General Prosecutor Office of the Russian Federation dismissed all charges against her. On November 18, 2005, the Supreme Court of Ukraine issued a ruling which invalidated all criminal cases against Yulia Tymoshenko and her family.

After her dismissal, Tymoshenko started to tour the country in a bid to win the 2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election as the leader of her Bloc.^{[nb 2]} Tymoshenko soon announced that she wanted to return to the post of Prime Minister.^[101] She managed to form a strong team that started a political fight on two fronts – with Viktor Yanukovych’s and Viktor Yushchenko’s camps.

With the Bloc coming second in the election, and winning 129 seats, many speculated that she might form a coalition with Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party and the Socialist Party of Ukraine (SPU) to prevent the Party of Regions from gaining power. Tymoshenko again reiterated her stance in regard to becoming Prime Minister. However, negotiations with Our Ukraine and SPU faced many difficulties as the various blocs fought over posts and engaged in counter-negotiations with other groups.

On Wednesday, 21 June 2006, the Ukrainian media reported that the parties had finally reached a coalition agreement, which appeared to have ended nearly three months of political uncertainty.^[

Tymoshenko's nomination and confirmation as the new Prime Minister was expected to be straightforward. However, the political intrigue that took place broke the plan. BYuT partners “Our Ukraine” and Socialist Party of Ukraine (SPU) could not come to agreement regarding distribution of powers, thus creation of the Coalition of Democratic Force was put on hold. Yushchenko and oligarchs from his narrow circle were trying to impede Tymoshenko from returning to the office of prime minister. Her nomination was preconditioned on the election of her long-time rival Petro Poroshenko from Our Ukraine to the position of speaker of the parliament. Oleksandr Moroz, the chairman of the Socialist Party of Ukraine, also expressed his interest in becoming speaker. Tymoshenko stated that she would vote for any speaker from the coalition.  Within a few days of the signing of the coalition agreement, it became clear that the coalition members mistrusted each other, since they considered it a deviation from parliamentary procedures to hold a simultaneous vote on Poroshenko as the speaker and Tymoshenko as Prime Minister. 

The Party of Regions announced an ultimatum to the coalition demanding that parliamentary procedures be observed, asking that membership in parliamentary committees be allocated in proportion to seats held by each fraction, and demanding chairmanship in certain Parliamentary committees as well as Governorships in the administrative subdivisionswon by the Party of Regions.^[109][110] The Party of Regions complained that the coalition agreement deprived the Party of Regions and the communists of any representation in the executive and leadership in parliamentary committees, while in the local regional councils won by the Party of Regions the coalition parties were locked out of all committees as well.

Members from the Party of Regions blocked the parliament from Thursday, 29 June through Thursday, 6 July.

 

After lengthy negotiations, SPU suddenly pulled out of the Coalition and joined the alliance with the Party of Regions and the Communist Party of Ukraine. Oleksandr Moroz assured that the team of Viktor Yushchenko was conducting secret negotiations with the Party of Regions. According to that deal, Viktor Yanukovych was supposed to become the speaker, while Yuriy Yekhanurov kept the prime minister portfolio. These negotiations were conducted by Yekhanurov himself upon Yushchenko’s request. Later, Yekhanurov admitted this fact in his interview with the “Ukrainska Pravda” website.

Following the surprise nomination of Oleksandr Moroz from the Socialist Party of Ukraine as the Rada speaker and his subsequent election late on 6 July with the support of the Party of Regions, the "Orange coalition" collapsed. (Poroshenko had withdrawn his candidacy and had urged Moroz to do the same on 7 July.^[

 After the creation of a large coalition of majority, led by the former prime minister Viktor Yanukovych and composed of the Party of Regions, the Socialist Party of Ukraine and the Communist Party of Ukraine, Yanukovych became Prime Minister, and the other two parties were left in the wilderness.

On August 3, 2006, Tymoshenko refused to sign the “Universal of National Unity” declaration initiated by president Yushchenko. The document, signed by Yushchenko, Yanukovych and leaders of Socialist and Communist parties, sealed Yanukovych’s appointment as prime minister. Tymoshenko called it “the act of betrayal”. In September 2006, Tymoshenko announced that her political force would be in opposition to the new government.

Our Ukraine stalled until 4 October 2006, when it too joined the opposition.

On January 12, 2007, a BYuT vote in the parliament overrode the president’s veto of the “On the Cabinet of Ministers” law that was advantageous for the president. (In exchange, BYuT voted for the “On Imperative Mandate” and “On Opposition” laws). This vote was one of many steps undertaken by BYuT to ruin a fragile alliance between president Yushchenko and prime minister Yanukovych.

In March 2007, Yulia Tymoshenko traveled to the United States, where she held high-level meetings with Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice andStephen Hadley, the National Security Advisor under President George W. Bush. ^{[nb 4]}. On March 31, 2007, Tymoshenko initiated a "100 thousand people Maidan" aimed to urge the president to call an early parliamentary election. 

On April 4, 2007, president Yushchenko issued an edict “On early termination of duties of the Verkhovna Rada” as a reaction to violation of the Constitution by the Party of Regions, which had started dragging individual deputies into the “ruling coalition” (this being illegal, as coalitions should be formed by factions and not by individual deputies). In doing so, the Party of Regions was trying to achieve a constitutional majority of 300 votes which would enable prime minister Yanukovych to override the president’s veto and control the legislative process. Party of Regions didn’t obey this edict. In order to dismiss the Verkhovna Rada, Yulia Tymoshenko and her supporters in the parliament (168 deputies from BYuT and “Our Ukraine” factions) quit their parliamentary factions on June 2, 2007. That step invalidated the convocation of the Verkhovna Rada and cleared the path to an early election.

An early parliamentary election was held on September 30, 2007.

2007 parliamentary election

Following balloting in the 2007 parliamentary elections held on 30 September 2007, Orange Revolution parties said they had won enough votes to form a governing coalition. On 3 October 2007, an almost final tally gave the alliance of Tymoshenko and President Yushchenko a slim lead over the rival party of Prime Minister Yanukovych. Although Yanukovych, whose party won the single biggest share of the vote, also claimed victory,^[124] one of his coalition allies, the Socialist Party of Ukraine, failed to gain enough votes to retain seats in Parliament.

On 15 October 2007, the Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc agreed to form a majority coalition in the new parliament of the 6th convocation.^[125] On 29 November, a coalition was signed between the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc, which was associated with President Yushchenko. Both parties are affiliated with the Orange Revolution. On December 11, 2007, the Coalition failed in its attempt to appoint Tymoshenko prime minister, falling one vote short (225 members of parliament supported her nomination). On December 12, 2007, the media reported on the possible attempted assassination of Yulia Tymoshenko. BYuT and Tymoshenko herself said it was an intimidation. On 18 December, Tymoshenko was once again elected as Prime Minister (supported by 226 deputies, the minimal number needed for passage), heading the second Tymoshenko Government.

Prime Minister 2007–2010, and 2008 political crisis

On July 11, 2008, Party of Regions tried to vote no-confidence to Tymoshenko’s government in the parliament, but could not collect enough votes.^[127]

The coalition of Tymoshenko's Bloc (BYuT) and Yushchenko's Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc (OU-PSD) was put at risk due to differing opinions concerning the ongoing2008 South Ossetia War between Georgia and Russia. Yulia Tymoshenko disagreed with Yushchenko's condemnation of Russia and preferred to stay neutral on the issue. Yushchenko's office accused her of taking a softer position in order to gain support from Russia in the upcoming 2010 election. Andriy Kyslynskyi, the president's deputy chief of staff, went as far as to accuse her of 'high treason'.

The accusations from the president’s camp were highly exaggerated and distorted. Tymoshenko has publicly announced her support for Georgia.

According to BYuT, Viktor Baloha (Chief of Staff of the Presidential Secretariat) criticized the premier at every turn, accusing her of everything from not being religious enough to damaging the economy and plotting to kill him, and the accusation of 'betrayal' over Georgia was simply one of the latest and most pernicious attacks directed at the premier.

After Tymoshenko's BYuT voted alongside the Communist Party of Ukraine and the Party of Regions to pass legislation that would facilitate the procedure of impeachment for future Presidents and limit the President's power while increasing the Prime Minister's powers, President Yushchenko's OU-PSD bloc pulled out of the coalition and Yushchenko promised to veto the legislation and threatened to hold an election if a new coalition was not formed soon. This resulted in the 2008 Ukrainian political crisis, which culminated in Yushchenko calling anearly parliamentary election on 8 October 2008.

 

Tymoshenko was fiercely opposed to the snap election, stating "No politician would throw Ukraine into snap elections at this important time. But, if Yushchenko and Yanukovych – who are ideologists of snap elections – throw the country into snap elections, then they will bear responsibility for all the consequences of the global financial crisis on Ukraine".

Initially, the election was to be held on 7 December 2008,

but was later postponed to an unknown date.^[

Tymoshenko had no intention of resigning^[ until a new coalition was formed.

In early December 2008, there were negotiations between BYuT and Party of Regions to form a coalition, but after Volodymyr Lytvyn was elected Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament of Ukraine) on 9 December 2008, he announced the creation of a coalition between his Lytvyn Bloc, BYuTand OU-PSD.After negotiations, the three parties officially signed the coalition agreement on 16 December.

It was not known whether this coalition would stop the snap election,although Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn predicted the Verkhovna Rada would work until 2012.

On February 5, 2009, Tymoshenko’s opponents in the parliament were trying to dismiss her government again, but again the vote failed.

 The following day, president Yushchenko strongly criticized Tymoshenko and the economic policies of her government.

Tymoshenko accused him of spreading "a mix of untruths, panic and hysteria.".

A large part of Tymoshenko’s second term as prime minister coincided in time with the global financial crisis of 2008, which required her government to respond to numerous challenges that could have led the country’s economic collapse.

Tymoshenko’s government launched an anti corruption campaign and identified it as one of its priorities. 

Gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine (2009)

The conditions leading to the 2009 gas dispute were created back in 2006, under the Viktor Yanukovych government, when Ukraine started buying Russian gas through an intermediary, Swiss-registered RosUkrEnergo. (Fifty percent of RosUkrEnergo shares were owned by the Russian “Gazprom”, with 45 percent and 5 percent owned by Ukrainian businessmen Dmytro Firtash and Ivan Fursin, respectively). Some sources indicate that notorious criminal boss Sergiy Shnaider (nick Semen Mogylevych, associated with Dmytro Firtash) also owned shares in the company.

When Tymoshenko resumed her prime minister duties in 2007, she initiated direct relations between Ukraine and Russia with regard to gas trading. An October 2, 2008 Memorandum signed by Tymoshenko and Vladimir Putin stipulated liquidation of intermediaries in gas deals between the two countries and outlined detailed conditions for future gas contracts. The gas conflict of 2009 broke out because of two factors, the lack of a gas contract for 2009 and a $2.4 billion debt that Ukraine had yet to pay for gas received in 2008.^[161] Prime Minister Tymoshenko stated that it was the “RosUkrEnergo” company that was responsible for the debt, rather than the state of Ukraine. She called for an end to corruption in the gas trade area and the establishment of direct contracts with the Russian Federation.

“RosUkrEnergo”, with the aid of its ties to Yushchenko’s administration, managed to disrupt the signing of a gas contract scheduled for December 31, 2008. Oleksiy Miller, head of “Gazprom”, stated that trader “RosUkrEnergo” broke down talks between “Gazprom” and “Naftogaz Ukrainy”: “Yes indeed, in late December 2008, the prime ministers of Russia and Ukraine came to agreement, and our companies were ready to seal the deal for $235 per 1000 cubic meters of natural gas with the condition that all the export operations from Ukraine will be done bilaterally. RosUkrEnergo then suggested to buy gas at $285 price.” On December 31, 2008, president Viktor Yushchenko gave Oleg Dubyna, head of “Naftogaz Ukrainy”, a direct order to stop talks, not sign the agreement and recall the delegation from Moscow. The decision made by the president of Ukraine brought on the crisis.

On January 14, 2009, prime minister Tymoshenko said, “The negotiations on $235 gas price and $1.7–1.8 transit price, that started on October 2 and successfully have been moving forward since, have been broken up because, unfortunately, Ukrainian politicians were trying to keep “RosUkrEnergo” in business as a shadow intermediary…The negotiations between the two prime ministers and later between 'Gazprom' and 'Naftogaz Ukrainy' were ruined by those Ukrainian political groups, who have gotten and are planning to get corrupt benefits from 'RosUkrEnergo'.” On January 17, 2009, president of Russia Dmitriy Medvedev said, “I think that our Ukrainian partners and us can trade gas without any intermediaries, especially without intermediaries with questionable reputation. The problem is that some participants of negotiations insisted on keeping the intermediary referring to the instructions from the top.

On January 1, 2009, at 10 AM, “Gazprom” completely stopped pumping gas to Ukraine.On January 4, the Russian monopolist offered to sell Ukraine gas for $450 per 1000 cubic meter (minus a fee for gas transit through Ukraine), which was defined as a standard price for Eastern European countries. On January 8, 2009, the prime minister of Russia, Vladimir Putin, said that Ukraine would have to pay $470 for 1000 cubic meters of natural gas.

Between January 1 and 18, Central and Eastern European countries received significantly less gas. Ukrainian heat-and-power stations were working to utmost capacity. Due to sub-zero temperatures, the entire housing and public utilities sectors were on the verge of collapse. On January 14, the European Commission and the Czech presidency in the European Union demanded the immediate renewal of gas deliveries in full capacity lest the reputations of Russia and Ukraine as reliable EU partners be seriously damaged. On January 18, 2009, after five day-long talks, prime ministers Putin and Tymoshenko came to agreement on the renewal of gas delivery to Ukraine and other EU countries. The parties agreed upon the following: A return to direct contract deals between “Gazprom” and “Naftogaz Ukrainy”; the removal of non-transparent intermediaries; the introduction of formula-based pricing for Ukraine (which also works for other Eastern European countries); and a switch to a $2.7 transit fee, which is close to the average price in Europe. According to the new gas contract, in 2009 Ukraine paid an average price of $232.98 per 1000 cubic meters,^[167] while other European consumers were paying above $500 per 1000 cubic meters.^[

2010 Presidential election[

Tymoshenko was a candidate in the Ukrainian presidential elections of 2010,but lost that election to Viktor Yanukovych (Tymoshenko received 45.47% of the votes in the second and final round of the election, 3% less than her rival.

In 2009, the relations between Tymoshenko and President Yushchenko, the Secretariat of the President of Ukraine and the oppositional Party of Regionsremained hostile.According to Tymoshenko, her conflict with the President was a political competition and not ideological antagonism, and she emphasized early in February 2009 that the "election struggle for the next presidential elections has virtually begun."

“This is a competition during economic crisis; [some people] prefer to collect political benefits from these problems instead of solving them together”, Tymoshenko said in an interview with German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in February 2009. Later, in an interview with the French paper Le Monde, the prime minister said that “the president treats her as a rival striving for president’s office.” She also added that the previously mentioned political instability fuels economic crisis. Tymoshenko then called for an early presidential election.

Having long being considered a possible candidate for President of Ukraine in the 2010 election, .Tymoshenko announced that she would indeed compete in the upcoming presidential election in a statement broadcast live on national TV on 7 June 2009. Tymoshenko also stated that if she lost the presidential election she would not challenge the results..On 12 September 2009, a tour in support of Tymoshenko's candidacy, called "With Ukraine in Heart", began on Kiev's Maidan Nezalezhnosti. Popular Ukrainian singers and bands took part in the tour..

On October 24, 2009, the delegates of all-Ukrainian union “Batkivshchyna” formally and unanimously endorsed Yulia Tymoshenko as their candidate for the next Presidential election.  The 200 thousand congress took place on Kyiv’s Independence Square. On October 31, 2009, the Central Election Commission registered Tymoshenko as a candidate for presidential election in 2010.

The Tymoshenko candidacy was also endorsed by prominent Ukrainian politicians such as Borys Tarasyuk, Yuriy Lutsenko, former President Leonid Kravchuk, the Christian Democratic Union,^[193] the European Party of Ukraine and others.^[195] Analysts suggested that Tymoshenko was the Russian Government's preferred candidate in the election. On 3 December 2009, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin denied this. Putin stated that he was cooperating with Tymoshenko as Prime Minister of Ukraine, but that he was not supporting her in the election.