Natalia Kalmykova
Ukrainian politician (born 1982)
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Natalia Fernandivna Kalmykova (Ukrainian: Наталія Фернандівна Калмикова; born 4 February 1982) is a Ukrainian politician who served as Minister of Veterans Affairs between 2024 and 2026.[1][2] From 2023 to 2024, she served as Deputy Minister of Defense.[3] From 2018 to 2021, she served as manager of Come Back Alive.[4]
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Yulia Svyrydenko
Natalia Kalmykova | |
|---|---|
Наталія Калмикова | |
Kalmykova in 2024 | |
| Minister of Veterans Affairs | |
| In office 5 September 2024 – 16 July 2026 | |
| President | Volodymyr Zelenskyy |
| Prime Minister | Denys Shmyhal Yulia Svyrydenko |
| Preceded by | Oleksandr Porkhun (acting) |
| Succeeded by | Vitalii Kim |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 4 February 1982 |
| Party | Independent |
Early life
Kalmykova was born on 4 February 1982 in Vinnytsia, then part of the Ukrainian SSR.[5] Her father is Cuban and studied in the Soviet Union where he met her mother.[6] From 1999 to 2005, she studied at the National Pirogov Memorial Medical University.[3] In addition to her degree from the medical university, she also studied at MIM-Kyiv Business School and was a Fulbright scholar at the University at Buffalo.[3] During her time in the United States she also engaged in research at Syracuse University on female leadership in militaries.[3] She returned briefly to study starting in 2019 at the Vinnytsia Academy of Continuing Education, where she was awarded a Master of Public Administration.[7]
From 2005 to 2012, she worked as an intern at the Vinnytsia City Emergency Hospital.[7] In addition, from 2007 to 2008 she worked as a part-time medical consultant for Alcon Pharmaceuticals and from 2008 to 2012 she was a marketing consultant for Delta Medical.[7] She returned to Delta Medical from 2014 to 2017.[7]
Career
In 2021, she became gender adviser to the Commander of the Ground Forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi.[7] In February 2022, she started serving as head of the Ukrainian Veterans Fund.[6]
From 2023 to 2024 she served as Deputy Minister of Defense.[3] She stated that as deputy minister, she helped create a simplified procedure for writing off military medical property, which helped provide the army with first-aid kits.[8]