Without the US and key EU countries, but with Asia and Africa: where 18 of Ukraine’s new ambassadors will go

A new large-scale overhaul of Ukraine’s diplomatic corps abroad has begun. Foreign Minister Dmytro Sibiha in the last days of July presented the president with a pool of 18 candidates for ambassadorial posts. The list included both career diplomats and new public figures. The main goal of the appointments is to fill vacant posts, replace ineffective heads of diplomatic missions with diplomats who can give new momentum to relations with the countries where they serve. Journalist Korotko pro studied the prospects for possible reshuffles.

Raising each ambassador’s KPIs

Announcing the large-scale personnel changes, head of Ukraine’s MFA Dmytro Sibiha named three key objectives of the renewal. First, rotations and filling empty posts are necessary for new dynamics and a change in the paradigm of relations with key states.

The next objective is the need to reorient the diplomatic corps toward strict KPIs (performance indicators that the MFA uses to evaluate each ambassador). Simply put, wartime diplomats must deliver rapid concrete results on attracting military assistance, investment, and increasing sanctions pressure on Russia, rather than conducting slow classical diplomacy.

And the final point is overcoming the personnel shortage. Dmytro Sibiha admitted that right now “the biggest challenge is personnel.” Therefore the ministry avoids the practice of leaving embassies without full-time heads for years under the management of acting chargés d’affaires.

A top official will handle European integration

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed Taras Kachka as Ukraine’s representative to the European Union in Brussels. Taras Kachka is a top-level ministerial official. Before his appointment to Brussels he served as vice prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine (in Yulia Svyrydenko’s Cabinet), and before that for many years he was deputy minister of economy and the long-serving Trade Representative of Ukraine.

As ambassador in Brussels, Taras Kachka will combine the functions of Ukraine’s representative to the EU and Ukraine’s Trade Representative. His main task is detailed work on advancing already opened and unblocking 4 negotiation clusters on Ukraine’s accession to the EU. He must conduct the most difficult communications not only with Brussels’ bureaucratic institutions but also work directly with national governments of EU member states (primarily overcoming recurring vetoes and Hungary’s skepticism).

From South Korea to Brazil

The key emphasis is on countries of the Global South, Latin America and Asia. It is precisely here that Ukraine most needs to overturn Russian narratives, gain the support of neutral states and attract new defense and technological resources.

For example, South Korea is one of the priority postings for Ukraine’s defense sector because of its defense technologies and military-industrial complex. This country has colossal stocks of artillery ammunition (155-mm) and advanced weaponry (K2 tanks, K9 SPGs, air defense systems). It is also a world leader in microchips and high technology. Therefore the task of the new ambassador, for whom Andriy Nikolaienko has been nominated, is to secure direct deliveries of lethal weapons while bypassing Seoul’s strict domestic legislative restrictions.

Or Brazil — the leader of Latin America, a BRICS member and a key heavyweight of the Global South. The appointment of experienced diplomat Inna Ohnivets there is meant to change President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s neutral-cool stance toward Ukraine. The ambassador must involve Brazil in implementing Ukraine’s “Peace Formula” and minimize its interaction with Russia within BRICS. Besides that, Brazil has huge volumes of raw materials and food. The economic track will focus on preventing supply shortages and expanding trade pragmatism.

Central Asia and the Global South

Next in importance are the Central Asian countries. The simultaneous replacement of ambassadors in almost all Central Asian republics (Yurii Mushka is going to Uzbekistan, Hennadiy Breskalenko to Tajikistan, Oleksii Perevezenets to Turkmenistan and Nataliia Sirenko to Kyrgyzstan) is aimed at weakening Russia’s rear.

Ambassadors should encourage the leadership of these countries to continue the course of gradual distancing from Moscow and strengthening sovereignty, including through development of the Trans-Caspian logistics route bypassing Russia.

Equally important are appointments of ambassadors to African countries of the Global South — Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal. Appointing several ambassadors there at once (Viktor Nikitiuk to Ethiopia, Oleh Kuts to Ghana, Viktor Hamotskyi to Senegal) continues Ukraine’s approved Africa strategy aimed at information and diplomatic displacement of Russia from the continent and winning the support of the Global South. Kyiv has significant instruments for this — African countries critically depend on Ukrainian grain. Ambassadors are to coordinate the Grain from Ukraine program, using humanitarian deliveries as a tool of soft power against Russian influence.

The new ambassadors are “professional career diplomats” and “technocrat-managers”

Candidates from the MFA’s new rotation pool consist of a combination of experienced diplomats and specialists in international law, economics and crisis management. That is, they are high-ranking “professional career diplomats” and “technocrat-managers” for economic breakthroughs.

For example, the candidates for ambassador to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Austria — Yurii Mushka, Hennadiy Breskalenko and Artem Rybchenko — are diplomats of the highest rank, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassadors. Yurii Mushka has worked in the MFA system since 1991. He previously headed Ukraine’s strategic embassies in Hungary (twice), South Korea and Slovakia. His level is that of a top negotiator who knows the specifics of both Asian and European regions.

Hennadiy Breskalenko is also a hands-on diplomat with vast crisis-management experience. He gained wide popularity as Ukraine’s consul in Russia when in the hardest conditions in 2014 he fought for access to and defended Ukrainian political prisoners (including Nadiia Savchenko) in Russian detention centers. He also served as minister-counselor in Israel.

Artem Rybchenko is a career diplomat who has extensive experience working in Western Europe: from 2018 to 2022 he successfully headed Ukraine’s embassy in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. His level matches the complex task of conducting negotiations in neutral Austria.

The category of “technocrat-managers” is represented, for example, by Oleksii Perevezenets, who holds a master’s degree in international law and a PhD in law. His status is that of a state-level official. Andriy Nikolaienko (Republic of Korea) is a diplomat, international economist and manager. Nikolaienko is being sent to Seoul as someone who deeply understands the Korean political system from the inside and is able to speak with South Korea’s pragmatic leadership in the language of numbers, investment and the defense industry.

From this it is clear that the Ukrainian MFA intentionally abandoned the practice of appointing “random” people or purely political appointees without experience. All 18 of the candidates are either professional diplomats with 20–30 years of experience in the MFA, or specialized international-lawyers and economists capable of solving concrete wartime tasks.

Expert opinion

Roman Bezsmertnyi, Ukrainian diplomat with the rank of Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador:

- In classical diplomatic practice such a mass replacement of ambassadors is rarely carried out. As a rule, an ambassador is expected to serve his minimum contract for 4 years. But this rotation is caused by the peculiarities of wartime and Ukraine’s corresponding needs.

The essence is that there is a particular need to correct diplomatic tasks. It is important for European countries, for the United States of America. But in those countries there is not a large diplomatic rotation.

However, in Latin America, the Global South and Central Asia the task is not just to correct diplomatic relations but to significantly change their paradigm. These are regions where China’s and Russia’s influence is very strong. Thus our diplomats face the extremely difficult task of overturning Russian narratives and Russia’s influence in these countries.