| Sviatoslav Yurash | |
| Native Name Lang: | uk |
| Office: | People's Deputy of Ukraine |
| Term Start: | 29 August 2019 |
| Constituency: | Servant of the People, No. 27 |
| Birth Date: | 16 February 1996 |
| Birth Place: | Lviv, Ukraine |
| Party: | Servant of the People |
Sviatoslav Andriiovych Yurash (uk|Святосла́в Андрі́йович Юра́ш, pronounced as /uk/; born 16 February 1996) is a Ukrainian politician who represents the Servant of the People party in the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine's parliament),[1] to which he was elected in 2019.[2], Yurash is the youngest Ukrainian MP. He was previously the Euromaidan press centre organiser[1] and senior spokesperson for Volodymyr Zelenskyy's successful 2019 presidential election campaign.[2] Yurash co-founded the cross-party conservative grouping Values. Dignity. Family. in the Ukrainian parliament.[3] [4]
Sviatoslav Yurash was born in Lviv, Ukraine, on 16 February 1996.[5] He studied international relations in Poland and was studying in Kolkata when the Euromaidan protests broke out and he returned to Ukraine.[6] [7]
He studied at the University of Warsaw at the English Department of the Faculty of International Relations. After studying for some time in Poland, Yurash continued his studies in India and entered the Calcutta University at a similar faculty. He interrupted his studies in connection with the beginning of the events on the Euromaidan.
He returned to Ukraine in December 2013. He became the founder of the Euromaidan international press center based in the building of Trade Unions. The center engaged in communication activities and became not only a place where foreign journalists could find help, but also the birth of Euromaidan PR, which played an important role in the information campaign of the protesters, and thanks to which broadcasting in seven languages began on various media platforms. Currently, the resource continues to exist under the name Euromaidan Press.https://www.rferl.org/a/ukrainians-reflect-bitterly-on-betrayed-hopes-euromaidan/28203245.html
For his participation in the events of the Revolution of Dignity, he received the Order of Merit III degree, which was presented to him by Petro Poroshenko in February 2019.
During the first 6 months of the Russian-Ukrainian war, he worked in the occupied part of Donbas, covering the crimes of Russian mercenaries and pro-Russian separatists.
After returning from the war, he cooperated with international organizations, state, public, media and business structures.
In 2019, Yurash was elected a People's Deputy on the party list from the Servant of the People party and became the youngest ever member of Parliament of Ukraine.
During the early days of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, along with other People's Deputies, he was photographed patrolling the streets of Kyiv armed with a Kalashnikov.[8] In March 2022, Yurash's close friend, Oleksandra Kuvshynova, was killed when the car that she was in was hit by Russian shelling.[9] [10] Yurash has subsequently worked with the Ukrainian Foreign Legion, helping to co-ordinate foreign fighters and to deliver supplies to frontline cities, towns and villages.[11]
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Yuraš has been engaged in volunteer activities. He gathered around him a coalition of public organizations focusing on work in hot spots which started his union of organizations Cerberus.
Also, on March 15, 2022, Yurash voluntarily mobilized to the ranks of the Buchan Territorial Defense. He took part in the mission to clean up Zabuchchya, Kyiv region and Donetsk region.
In the summer of 2022, he was assigned to Bakhmut as part of the 113rd battalion. In late autumn he joined the 24th Assault Battalion Aydar.