Sergiy[a] Olehovych Kyslytsya (Ukrainian: Сергій Олегович Кислиця, romanizedSerhii Olehovych Kyslytsia; born 15 August 1969) is a Ukrainian career diplomat, who serves as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine and Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations.[1] He had previously served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine (2014–2019).[2][3]

Sergiy Kyslytsya
Сергій Кислиця
Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations
Assumed office
18 December 2019
PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy
Preceded byVolodymyr Yelchenko
Personal details
Born (1969-08-15) 15 August 1969 (age 55)
Kyiv, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union
Children1
EducationKyiv University (MA)

Early life and education

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Born in Kyiv, Ukraine on 15 August 1969. Kyslytsya graduated cum laude from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv with a Master of Arts degree in International Law.[4] He is fluent in Ukrainian, English, Russian, Spanish and French.[4]

Career

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Kyslytsya started his career in international diplomacy as an intern to the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine. Over the next eight years Kyslytsya held a number of diplomacy roles, including: Special Assistant to the Deputy, First Deputy, Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Head, a.i., of the Council of Europe Section, MFA, Ukraine; Second, First Secretary (political), Special Assistant to the Ambassador, Embassy of Ukraine to Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg and Mission of Ukraine to NATO; contact point for WEU-Ukraine (Brussels); Chief of Staff of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine; Senior Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Group of Advisers and Ambassadors at Large, MFA, Ukraine.[2]

In 2001, Kyslytsya became the Political Counselor at the Embassy of Ukraine, Washington, D.C. before becoming the political Minister-Counselor at the embassy.[5]

In 2006, Kyslytsya was appointed the Director-General for International Organizations within the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

Kyslytsya was appointed the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in 2014.[6][7][8] Kyslytsya was Deputy Minister during the Annexation of Crimea by Russia, and was involved in the international response to the annexation.[9][10] In 2016, Kyslytsya was assigned the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.[1] Kyslytsya also currently serves as Ukraine's Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago.[11] [12]

Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN

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Kyslytsya was appointed to be the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations in 2019.

In 2021, Kyslytsya was awarded the Order of Merit of the III degree: his citation read "for significant personal contribution to strengthening international cooperation of Ukraine, many years of fruitful diplomatic activity and high professionalism."[13]

 
Kyslytsya at Geneva talks in 2014

Invasion of Ukraine in 2022

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In early 2022, Kyslytsya gained international media attention when he made a series of comments in relation to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, including condemnations of the Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya.[citation needed]

On 23 February 2022, President Vladimir Putin announced the invasion via video message half an hour into an emergency meeting of the Security Council meeting regarding Ukraine. After this Kyslytsya called at the meeting upon Russian Representative Vasily Nebenzya to "call Lavrov right now" and "do everything possible to stop the war." After Nebenzya had refused to do so and refused to relinquish Security Council Presidency, Kyslytsya told the Russian Representative that war criminals would not go to purgatory, but "straight to hell," which generated substantial media attention.[14][15][16]

When questioned by a reporter about Nebenzya's assertion that the military operation in Ukraine "isn't called a war" Kyslytsya said "you want me to dissect the crazy lunatic semantics of a person whose president violates the charter, whose president declared a war and he's playing with words".[17]

A draft resolution submitted by the United States and Albania condemning Russian aggression ultimately failed due to Russia's veto. Kyslytsya slammed the Russian actions as unjustifiable and the Russian delegation as untrustworthy.[18]

UN General Assembly
  Addressing UN General Assembly on Feb 28, 2022

On 28 February, during a special session of the United Nations General Assembly, Kyslytsya said "‘If [Putin] wants to kill himself, he doesn’t need to use the nuclear arsenal. He has to do what the guy in Berlin did in a bunker in May 1945."[19][20]

On 1 March, while speaking to the UN General Assembly, Kyslytsya read aloud from what was claimed to be "an actual screenshot" of the messages found on the phone of a dead Russian soldier, noting that the messages had been sent "several moments before" the soldier was killed.[21] The messages were from the unnamed Russian to his mother and included him saying "Mama, I'm in Ukraine. There is a real war raging here. I'm afraid. We are bombing all of the cities together, even targeting civilians' and "They call us fascists. Mama, this is so hard".[21][22]

Diplomatic rank

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Awards and honours

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  •   - Order of Merit of the 3rd degree (December 22, 2021) - For significant personal contribution to strengthening international cooperation of Ukraine, many years of fruitful diplomatic activity and high professionalism.[23]

References

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  1. ^ a b "УКАЗ ПРЕЗИДЕНТА УКРАЇНИ №916/2019". Офіційне інтернет-представництво Президента України. Archived from the original on 21 December 2019. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Sergiy Kyslytsya - Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine - MFA of Ukraine". 28 January 2018. Archived from the original on 28 January 2018. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  3. ^ "Mr. Sergiy Kyslytsya". 26 November 2018. Archived from the original on 21 December 2019. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  4. ^ a b "MR. SERGIY KYSLYTSYA". Ukrainian Women's Congress. Archived from the original on 2 March 2022. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  5. ^ "New Permanent Representative of Ukraine Presents Credentials | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases". www.un.org. Archived from the original on 28 July 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  6. ^ "Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Sergiy Kyslytsya led Ukrainian Delegation for the Political Consultations between Foreign Ministries of Ukraine and Malaysia". Archived from the original on 21 December 2019. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  7. ^ "Statement by Mr. Sergiy Kyslytsya, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, at the open debate of the Security Council on UN peacekeeping operations". Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations. Archived from the original on 21 December 2019. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  8. ^ dot2dot.sk, jan@gabrhel eu &. "Georgia's European way | Sergiy Kyslytsya". Georgia's European way. Archived from the original on 13 August 2019. Retrieved 21 December 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ "Ukraine Calls for Strictness on Russia in Japan-Organisation for Security and Co-operation Meet Meet". NDTV.com. Archived from the original on 3 March 2022. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  10. ^ "Human Rights Council holds interactive dialogue on the situation of human rights in Ukraine - Ukraine". ReliefWeb. 21 March 2018. Archived from the original on 3 March 2022. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  11. ^ Julien, Joel (1 September 2022). "Ambassador of Ukraine to T&T: Don't take independence for granted". Trinidad and Tobago Guardian. Archived from the original on 4 September 2022. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  12. ^ De Souza, Janelle (4 September 2022). "Ukraine ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago: Putin's war an 'aggression on peace-loving' nations". Trinidad and Tobago Newsday. Archived from the original on 17 September 2022. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  13. ^ "УКАЗ ПРЕЗИДЕНТА УКРАЇНИ №669/2021 — Офіційне інтернет-представництво Президента України". 23 December 2021. Archived from the original on 23 December 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  14. ^ "Ukraine - Security Council, 8974th meeting". United Nations. 23 February 2022. Archived from the original on 26 February 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  15. ^ Haltiwanger, John. "Ukraine rips into Russia at the UN, saying war criminals 'go straight to hell'". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 25 February 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  16. ^ Leff, Alex; Wood, Patrick (24 February 2022). "Read the impassioned plea from Ukraine's U.N. ambassador to Russia to stop the war". NPR. Archived from the original on 26 February 2022. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
  17. ^ "'There is no purgatory for war criminals, they go straight to hell': Ukraine's UN ambassador condemns Russian counterpart". ABC News. 24 February 2022. Archived from the original on 1 March 2022. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
  18. ^ "Security Council Fails to Adopt Draft Resolution on Ending Ukraine Crisis as Russian Federation Wields Veto". www.un.org. Archived from the original on 26 February 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  19. ^ "If Putin wants to kill himself...: Ukraine invokes Hitler at UN over Russia's nuke threat". India Today. 1 March 2022. Archived from the original on 28 February 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  20. ^ "If Putin wants to die, he should do what Hitler did 'in the bunker', says Ukrainian official". Sky News. Archived from the original on 28 February 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  21. ^ a b Teh, Cheryl. "'Mama, this is so hard:' Ukraine UN envoy reads out what he claims are the final text messages sent by a slain Russian soldier". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 5 March 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  22. ^ "Ukraine's UN Ambassador Reads Russian Soldier's Final Text to His Mom". NBC Chicago. Archived from the original on 8 March 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
  23. ^ "On the celebration of state awards of Ukraine on the occasion of the Day of Diplomatic Service". 22 December 2021. Archived from the original on 23 December 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
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Notes

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  1. ^ Also transliterated as Serhiy or Serhii