Yulia was born in 1960 in Dnipropetrovsk. However in 1962, her family moved to Kiev and this was where she grew up. Her mother, Yulia Petrov (born 1935) was a poet, and her father, Joseph Telegina (1926 - 1997) was a factory manager in Kiev. She studied at the Molotov School of Law (1980 - 1983) and then became a lawyer. She joined the Communist Party in 1980, so she could enroll in the school. She resigned as mayor in January 1996 to take part in the Duma elections the following month. She held the democratic party seat of Kiev Central and first spoke in parliament in July that year.