Sergiy Olehovych Kyslytsya (; born 15 August 1969) is a Ukrainian career diplomat, who serves as Ambassador Extraordinary. He had previously served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine (2014–2019), Plenipotentiary of

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

and

Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations This is a list of the United Nations Permanent Representative, Permanent Representatives of Ukraine to the United Nations. Permanent Representative is the head of the permanent mission of Ukraine to the United Nations. History On 26 June 1945, ...

(2019–2024).

Early life and education

Born in

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

on 15 August 1969. Kyslytsya graduated cum laude from

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv The Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (; also known as Kyiv University, Shevchenko University, or KNU) is a public university in Kyiv, Ukraine. The university is the third-oldest university in Ukraine after the University of Lviv and ...

with a Master of Arts degree in International Law. He is fluent in Ukrainian, English,

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

and French.

Career

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 The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine (, ) is the ministry of the Ukrainian government that oversees the foreign relations of Ukraine. The head of the ministry is the Minister of Foreign Affairs. History Originally, the ministry was esta ...

, 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

; Senior Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Group of Advisers and Ambassadors at Large, MFA, Ukraine. In 2001, Kyslytsya became the Political Counselor at the Embassy of Ukraine, Washington, D.C. before becoming the political Minister-Counselor at the embassy. 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. Kyslytsya was Deputy Minister during the Annexation of Crimea by Russia, and was involved in the international response to the annexation. In 2016, Kyslytsya was assigned the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. Kyslytsya also concurrently served as Ukraine's Ambassador to

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean, comprising the main islands of Trinidad and Tobago, along with several List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, smaller i ...

Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN

Kyslytsya was appointed to be the

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." Sergiy Kyslytsya at Geneva talks

On December 21, 2024, Kyslytsya dismissed from the position during diplomatic sector rotations carried out by President Zelenskyy. He was succeeded by Khrystyna Gayovyshyn (acting). On February 13, 2025 Kyslytsya was appointed the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

Invasion of Ukraine in 2022

In early 2022, Kyslytsya gained international media attention when he made a series of comments in relation to the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, including condemnations of the Russian President

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

and Russian Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya. 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 In Christianity, Purgatory (, borrowed into English language, English via Anglo-Norman language, Anglo-Norman and Old French) is a passing Intermediate state (Christianity), intermediate state after physical death for purifying or purging a soul ...

, but "straight to

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...

," which generated substantial media attention. 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". A draft resolution submitted by the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

condemning Russian aggression ultimately failed due to Russia's

veto A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president (government title), president or monarch vetoes a bill (law), bill to stop it from becoming statutory law, law. In many countries, veto powe ...

. Kyslytsya slammed the Russian actions as unjustifiable and the Russian delegation as untrustworthy. On 28 February, during a special session of the United Nations General Assembly, Kyslytsya said "‘If utinwants 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." 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. 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".

Diplomatic rank

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

Awards and honours

Order of Merit The Order of Merit () is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by Edward VII, admission into the order r ...

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.''

References

External links

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kyslytsya 1969 births 20th-century diplomats 21st-century diplomats Diplomats from Kyiv Living people Permanent representatives of Ukraine to the United Nations Ambassadors of Ukraine to Trinidad and Tobago Recipients of the Order of Merit (Ukraine), 3rd class Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv alumni Deputy foreign ministers of Ukraine Pro-Ukrainian people of the Russian invasion of Ukraine