Yanukovych cabinet Boyko served as First Deputy Minister of Fuel and Energy of Ukraine from July 2003 to March 2005 in the cabinet of then-
Prime Minister Victor Yanukovych. In the summer of 2005
President Viktor Yushchenko blocked the arrest of Boyko on suspicion of
abuse of office while heading
Naftogaz. This arrest had been ordered by
Security Service of Ukraine Chairman
Oleksandr Turchynov.
Azarov cabinet On 11 March 2010 Boyko was again appointed the Minister of Fuel and Energy of Ukraine by
Prime Minister Mykola Azarov. On 9 December 2010, due to the optimisation of the system of central executive power in Ukraine (a.k.a. reorganisation of ministries), Yanukovych, who was now
President of Ukraine, dismissed Boyko on a technicality and re-appointed him as Minister of Energy and Coal Industry. On 24 December 2012, Boyko was promoted to the position of a Vice Prime Minister, responsible for ecology, natural resources, energy, coal industry and industrial policy. On 23 May 2013, the space sector was added to his functions.
Career after vice premiership Dmitry Medvedev and
Gazprom chairman
Alexey Miller, leading the Russian delegation, with Yuriy Boyko and
Viktor Medvedchuk on the Ukrainian side (2018) On 29 March 2014, a Party of Regions convention decided to support Boyko's political opponent
Mykhailo Dobkin as a candidate for the
presidential election, and on 7 April 2014, the party's political council expelled Boyko amidst infighting. In the
2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election he was again re-elected into parliament; this time heading the electoral list of
Opposition Bloc. On 9 November 2018, Boyko and the party
For life signed an agreement for cooperation in the
2019 Ukrainian presidential election and the
parliamentary election of the same year called
Opposition Platform-For life. The same day Opposition Bloc leading members
Vadym Novynskyi and
Borys Kolesnikov claimed the agreement was a "personal initiative" of Boyko and that the Opposition Bloc had not taken any decisions on cooperation with For life. On 17 November 2018 the Opposition Platform-For life nominated Boyko as its candidate in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election. Because the Opposition Platform-For life was not yet registered as a party in January 2019 it could not nominate him as a presidential candidate. Hence on 17 January 2019 Boyko submitted documents to the
Central Election Commission of Ukraine for registration as a self-nominated candidate. In the election Boyko took the fourth place with 11.67% of the total vote, just over 4% behind incumbent
Petro Poroshenko, who polled second and progressed to the
second round along with
Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In the
parliamentary election a few months later, Boyko led his
Opposition Platform — For Life party to second place with 13.05% of the vote, becoming the main opposition party. His party was banned by the government following the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine for its
pro-Russian stances, despite it having opposed the invasion itself. Boyko reversed a number of his pro-Russian stances following the ban on his party, and later formed a new parliamentary group made up of former Opposition Platform — For Life members called
Platform for Life and Peace. In December 2024, Boyko posted a video on social media saying that “radicals” were “tearing down monuments, renaming cities, forbidding people to speak their native language and attend the church of their choice”, which was similar to stances expressed by Russia. He subsequently backtracked and clarified that he considered Russian president
Vladimir Putin to be a war criminal. Boyko's assets in Ukraine were blocked and he was stripped of his Ukrainian state awards on 19 January 2025 by a decree of
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. == Popularity ==