Ukrainian media claimed that Pushilin's highest stage of formal education is secondary education. According to his autobiography at the Central Election Commission of Ukraine, in May 2014 Russia's ITAR-TASS reported Pushilin had graduated from the Donbass Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture. Prior to his political activism, Pushilin worked for a recent successor of the 1990s Russian Ponzi scheme company MMM, which cost its customers millions of dollars before it was disbanded in 1994. Pushilin never denied involvement in such schemes and affirmed that "pyramid schemes were legal in Russia at the time". As a member of the "We Have One Goal" party Pushilin failed to win a seat in the 15 December 2013 repeat elections of the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election in simple-majorityconstituenciesnumber 94 because got only 0.08% of the votes. Pushilin's election program did not contain any statement on a wanted change of Ukraine's current borders. According to his election information, in December 2013 Pushilin was "temporarily not working". On 19 May 2014 Pushilin became the self-declared Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Donetsk People's Republic, and therefore, under the draft Constitution adopted on May 15, the self-declared republic's head of state. Denis Pushilin, the self-proclaimed chairman of the republic stated that he does not envision the Donetsk People's Republic becoming an independent state, instead preferring to join a renewed Russian Empire. Pushilin has survived two assassination attempts so far, both occurring within a week on the 7th and 12th of June 2014. Pushilin was in Moscow on those dates, as was widely reported at the time. While in Moscow in June 2014, Pushilin announced that enterprises in the areas claimed as the Donetsk People's Republic refusing to pay taxes to the republic would be nationalized. According to the Interfax agency, on 18 July 2014, Pushilin resigned from his post of the Chairman of the Donetsk People's Republic. From 14 November 2014 to 4 September 2015 he served as a Vice-Chairman of the Donetsk People's Republic Soviet then he replaced Andrei Purgin and became the Chairman of the Soviet once again. On 31 August 2018 DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko was killed by a bomb in a restaurant in Donetsk. On 7 September 2018, Pushilin was appointed acting Head of the DPR; it was said he would hold this position until elections on 11 November 2018.
