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The appointment of Yuliia Svyrydenko, a business-oriented official, shows how Kyiv is trying to persuade the Trump administration that working with the country can be lucrative, even in wartime.
Constant Méheut interviewed Yuliia Svyrydenko and 10 former and current Ukrainian and Western officials for this article.
Oct. 3, 2025Updated 11:28 a.m. ET
Yuliia Svyrydenko’s debut trip to the United States as Ukraine’s prime minister began at a showcase of American capitalism.
On a late-August morning, she joined a crowd of investors in the Nasdaq building in Times Square to celebrate the first ever American listing of a Ukrainian company, the telecom firm Kyivstar. Suspenseful music throbbed as a countdown clock ticked to zero and Ms. Svyrydenko rang the market’s opening bell.
It is rare for a prime minister to appear at the exchange, and even rarer for a company from a war-torn country to be listed on it. Ms. Svyrydenko, in a recent interview in Kyiv with The New York Times, said it showed, “Ukraine is not only about donations, but it’s about business.”
Her words appeared calculated to resonate with President Trump. He has long grumbled that the United States has not received anything in return for the tens of billions of dollars it has poured into Ukraine’s war effort, mostly under his predecessor, Joseph R. Biden Jr. With direct U.S. financial assistance now off the table, Kyiv is working to convince Mr. Trump that it is no charity case but a place where lucrative business can be done, even in wartime.
Appointed by President Volodymyr Zelensky in mid-July, Ms. Svyrydenko, 39, seems tailor-made for that task. She has spent her career working in private businesses or on economic matters for regional and national governments. As economy minister, she negotiated a high-stakes minerals deal with the Trump administration that has become the foundation for the new business-oriented relationship between Kyiv and Washington.
Her appointment “was a message from Ukraine to the United States, to Trump,” said Mykola Davydiuk, a Kyiv-based political analyst.
