Yurii Yekhanurov

Yuriy Ivanovych Yekhanurov (, ; born August 23, 1948) is a Ukrainian politician who was Prime Minister of Ukraine from 2005 to 2006 and Minister of Defense from 2007 to 2009. Background and professional career Yekhanurov was born in the village Belkachi in the far-north Yakut ASSR, which is currently the Sakha Republic within the Russian Federation. His father, Ivan Mikhailovich Yekhanurov is an ethnic Buryat, while his mother, Halyna Ivanivna Yekhanurova (Helena Yanivna Trybel) is an ethnic Pole. Between 1955 and 1963 Yuriy Yekhanurov attended a school in the village of Buy, Bichursky District, Buryatia. In 1963 he moved to Kyiv, Ukraine, where he has spent most of his life and career. He holds a PhD-equivalent degree in Economics, is married, and has one son. Yekhanurov graduated from a construction Technical School in 1967, and the Kyiv National Economic University in 1973. As his first job in 1974, he was assigned as a manager of a reinforced concrete plant at the state company "Kyivmiskbud-4". Yekhanurov quickly rose through the ranks, moving on to the "Stroydetal'" industrial group from 1985 to 1988. In that year, he was appointed deputy chairman of the Kyiv construction directorate, the "GolovKyivMiskBud".