Rada appoints Dmytro Natalukha as head of State Property Fund after yearlong vacancy

Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada has appointed MP Dmytro Natalukha, chair of the parliamentary Committee on Economic Development, as the new head of the State Property Fund. The appointment was backed by 244 lawmakers.

The position had been vacant since September 2024, when the fund’s former head, Vitalii Koval, was appointed Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food.

Natalukha is a trained lawyer. Before being elected to parliament, he worked as a partner in the political consulting practice at Lead/Augury Strategic Communications.

In his address to parliament, Natalukha said his priority would be to reform the State Property Fund.

"Since its inception in the 1990s, the fund played a logical role: it privatized and administered former Soviet assets. The state acted as a liquidator of the Soviet legacy rather than as an owner with a long-term strategy. This model has run its course, as most attractive assets have already been sold, while many remaining state-owned enterprises have stagnated or operated below their potential for years," he said.

According to Natalukha, the State Property Fund should shift its focus from privatization to active asset management.

"Privatization is a tool, but the goal is to manage state capital. We are talking about state-owned enterprises having clear strategies and capital management that provides the economy with healthy, profitable assets," he said.

Natalukha added that implementing the reform would require parliament to pass several draft laws, including Bill No. 13620, which would allow lower starting prices for problematic large-scale privatization assets, and Bill No. 14376, aimed at strengthening the institutional capacity of the State Property Fund.

• In 2022, then-head of the State Property Fund Rustem Umerov also said he wanted to transform the agency into a sovereign wealth fund, but he did not have time to pursue the initiative after being appointed Minister of Defense.