Yevhen Shaho

Yevhen Petrovych Shaho was born on 23 November 1941 in Dniprodzerzhynsk (now Kamianske), an industrial city in the Dnipropetrovsk region of what was then the Ukrainian SSR.

From 1961 to 1965 he worked as a fitter, labourer and senior worker at the city's Dzerzhinsky metallurgical works, before moving into Komsomol youth organisation work from 1965 to 1970. He studied at the Dniprodzerzhynsk Industrial Institute, graduating in 1970 as an electromechanical engineer. In 1988 he also graduated from the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party.

After graduating, Shaho worked from 1970 to 1973 as a shift foreman and then shop chief at a metalware plant in Dnipropetrovsk. From 1973 to 1991 he worked for the Communist Party of Ukraine. In 1987 he was first secretary of the Industrial district committee in Dnipropetrovsk. He went on to head the organisation, party and personnel department of the Dnipropetrovsk regional committee, and on 24 November 1990 he became the regional committee's secretary for organisation, serving until August 1991.

From 1991 to 1996 he held senior business posts in Dnipropetrovsk: first deputy general director of the Dnipro trading house, director of a branch of the Ukraine America company, and deputy general director of the East Ukrainian regional centre of Mercury Glob Ukraine. He also served as chairman of the board of United Energy Systems of Ukraine.

From 1999 to 2001 he worked in the office of Yulia Tymoshenko while she was deputy prime minister. On 23 March 2005 President Viktor Yushchenko appointed him first deputy minister of the Cabinet of Ministers in Tymoshenko's first government, and he was given the first rank of the civil service in April 2005. He left the post on 28 September 2005.

Shaho was elected to the Verkhovna Rada in 2006 as number 94 on the list of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, standing as a member of Batkivshchyna. He took his seat on 25 May 2006 and joined the committee on fuel and energy, nuclear policy and nuclear safety. On 12 June 2007 he gave up his mandate early, as part of the mass resignation of opposition deputies intended to bring about an early election.

He returned to parliament on 23 November 2007 as number 80 on the bloc's list and served until 12 December 2012. In that term he sat on the committee on environmental policy, natural resources and the aftermath of the Chornobyl disaster, chaired its subcommittee on industrial deposits and industrial waste from December 2008, and was secretary of the parliament's counting commission.

The press service of the Verkhovna Rada announced Yevhen Shaho's death on 14 August 2026. He was 84. The place and cause of death were not made public.

In its statement the parliament recalled his many years of state and public service, including his work as first deputy minister of the Cabinet of Ministers and as head of the board of United Energy Systems of Ukraine, and offered condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.

Shaho's career followed the path of many officials of his generation from Dnipropetrovsk, from factory floor and party committee to business and government in independent Ukraine. In parliament he worked mainly on energy and environmental questions. His home city awarded him its badge For Merits to the City of Dniprodzerzhynsk, third class, on his 70th birthday, citing his long service to the community and his personal contribution to tackling the city's environmental problems.