\n<\/p>\n
This month, the Ukrainian government made an unusual choice for its new prime minister. In a rare move for the country\u2014and indeed for most of Eastern Europe\u2014it picked a woman. Yulia Svyrydenko, a 39-year-old selected by President Volodymyr Zelensky and approved by Parliament, will lead the government in a period of intense uncertainty, as Russia escalates its offensive, Europe revamps its security commitments, and the Trump administration waffles on the war.<\/p>\n
Some Ukrainian and Western observers have suggested that Svyrydenko isn\u2019t up to the task, in part because they characterize her as a mere \u201cloyalist\u201d to Zelensky. She \u201cwould do everything saluting, without fail,\u201d an anonymous source in Zelensky\u2019s party told New Voice, a Ukrainian magazine. \u201cI don\u2019t believe she can reform our country,\u201d Oleksiy Goncharenko, a member of Parliament, told me as he left a legislative session last week where he\u2019d voted against her candidacy. \u201cIf she tries to criticize the president, she will end up like General Zaluzhny,\u201d he continued, referring to Ukraine\u2019s former army chief, whom Zelensky had dismissed after their differences became public.<\/p>\n
The new prime minister is also facing overtly sexist criticism. \u201cSvyrydenko is exactly the girl who all of you, dear students, are familiar with from school: She always sits at the front desk\u201d and \u201ccarefully writes down the teacher\u2019s notes,\u201d Oleh Posternak, a Ukrainian political strategist, wrote in a Facebook post that a national media site republished.<\/p>\n
Very few women have led former Soviet states, and they have virtually all received this kind of disparagement from men. In 2018, Georgia elected its first female president, Salome Zourabichvili, who\u2019d run as an independent. Before she even took office, political observers called her a \u201cfinger puppet\u201d of the billionaire leader of the ruling party, which had endorsed her. Today, many in Georgia credit Zourabichvili with uniting the opposition, and she condemned as \u201ctotally falsified\u201d a recent election won by the party of her former patron.<\/p>\n
In Moldova, many discounted Maia Sandu, who became the country\u2019s first female president in 2020. Sandu\u2019s rival in the race, the pro-Russian incumbent, Igor Dodon, criticized her for not having children\u2014a line of attack that MAGA would later take up against Kamala Harris in the 2024 U.S. presidential race. In Dodon\u2019s view, Sandu\u2019s lack of offspring meant that she was \u201cnot interested in what is happening in the country.\u201d Her opponents launched a misinformation campaign about her, much of which centered on the coronavirus pandemic. \u201cThe fake news scared people that I would close schools, hospitals, and even churches,\u201d Sandu told me at the time. Instead, Sandu invested in the country\u2019s medical and educational sectors, recruited European Union support for her agenda, and oversaw funding for the restoration of Orthodox churches. She has also been an effective reformer, working to root out the country\u2019s extensive corruption.<\/p>\n
Svyrydenko has a chance to leave a similar legacy in Ukraine. She has ample experience working with foreign governments, whose support is now existentially important to Ukraine. Early in her career, she served as the country\u2019s only permanent representative in China, bringing investment to her hometown of Chernihiv. As deputy prime minister, Svyrydenko negotiated billion-dollar reconstruction projects and trade agreements with the European Commission and Emirati leaders, as well as a $400 million investment from Turkish business interests. She also helped broker a natural-resources agreement with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to create a joint investment fund to rebuild Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Her appointment last week was part of a larger government reshuffle by Zelensky, who reassigned the previous prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, to the role of defense minister. In her new role, Svyrydenko will be tasked with rehabilitating the economy, boosting the domestic production of weapons, and strengthening Ukraine\u2019s armed forces, in part by securing financing from allies and the International Monetary Fund. One of her first actions as prime minister was to advance talks with the United States about a major potential investment in Ukraine\u2019s drone industry.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, and despite her strong r\u00e9sum\u00e9, Svyrydenko will have to contend with broad reservations in Ukraine about female leadership. According to a 2020 study conducted by the research group Rating, Ukrainians are more likely to prefer male political executives. Sometimes bad actors take advantage of this trust gap. Katerina Sergatskova, the executive director of the 2402 Foundation, which supports and trains Ukrainian journalists, has seen many Ukrainian women in public life become the target of harassment. \u201cIt is political sexism. The attacks are well-organized campaigns,\u201d Sergatskova told me. She has experienced such a campaign herself, which included death threats that forced her to stay out of Ukraine for a time.<\/p>\n
Sergatskova noted that many in Ukraine are comparing Svyrydenko to the country\u2019s first female prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, who took office in 2005 and faced several corruption charges. One case resulted in a criminal conviction against her and two and a half years in prison, which the U.S. condemned as politically motivated. After the 2014 revolution, which ousted Ukraine\u2019s pro-Russian regime, the supreme court overruled Tymoshenko\u2019s conviction and ordered her release. Nevertheless, a large majority of the Ukrainian public still don\u2019t trust her.<\/p>\n
Zelensky has fought against Ukraine\u2019s abiding suspicion of female politicians by promoting a new generation of them into leadership positions. In addition to picking Svyrydenko as prime minister, he also announced the appointment of Olha Stefanishyna as Ukraine\u2019s new special representative to the United States. The approach sets him apart from Vladimir Putin. Valentina Matviyenko, one of two women who serve on the Russian president\u2019s permanent security council, put on a Barbie-pink suit last year and derided feminism as \u201can anti-male, anti-traditional-values movement.\u201d Meanwhile, Russia bans and prosecutes feminist groups, and Putin tells Russian women to have \u201cminimum two children.\u201d<\/p>\n
For those who fear that Svyrydenko will be no more than a Zelensky loyalist, she is already facing her first test. This week, Zelensky tightened the administration\u2019s control over two independent agencies tasked with fighting government corruption. Sevgil Musayeva, the editor in chief of the newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, described the move as a step toward authoritarianism. \u201cSvyrydenko has a chance to act now and speak against this decision that is undermining democracy, which our soldiers are dying for,\u201d Musayeva told me. \u201cBut such action would require a lot of her courage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two days after Zelensky reined in the government watchdogs, Svyrydenko met with G7 ambassadors in Kyiv to discuss anti-corruption policy\u2014a subtle acknowledgment, perhaps, that the president had gone too far. But not everyone is convinced that Svyrydenko will be able to stand up to Zelensky. \u201cOfficially, we are a parliamentary-presidential republic,\u201d Goncharenko, the legislator, told me last week. \u201cI wish that were true. But we live in wartime; the decisions are made by the president.\u201d Goncharenko isn\u2019t holding out hope that Svyrdrydenko will be able to make her own choices: \u201cIf she contradicts his policy, he will simply fire her.\u201d<\/p>\n