Vadym Volodymyrovych Prystaiko (, ; born 20 February 1970) is a Ukrainian diplomat who was Ukraine's ambassador to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. He was appointed by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Volodymyr Zelenskyy Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy (born 25 January 1978) is a Ukrainian politician and former entertainer who has served as the sixth and current president of Ukraine since 2019. He took office five years after the start of the Russo-Ukraini ...

on 20 July 2020 and held the position until he was dismissed by Zelenskyy three years later. Prystaiko is a former

Minister of Foreign Affairs 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 establ ...

and former Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine. Between 2014 and 2019, he was also the Ukrainian ambassador to Canada between 2012 and 2014 and the head of the Mission of Ukraine to

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

from 7 July 2017 to 29 August 2019. In May 2019, Prystaiko served as the Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration for foreign policy issues. He is a member of the

National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, ( NSDCU; , ''RNBOU'') or RNBO, is the coordinating state body of the executive power under the President of Ukraine on issues of national security and defense. It is a state agency tasked wi ...

since 31 May 2019. He is also former Vice Prime Minister for

European European, or Europeans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe and other West ...

and

Euro-Atlantic Integration The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental transnational military alliance of 32 member states—30 European and 2 North American. Established in the aftermath ...

of Ukraine, serving from 4 March 2020 to 4 June 2020.

Early life

Prystaiko was born on 20 February 1970 in the city of

Kiliya Kiliia or Kilia (, ; ; ) is a city in Izmail Raion, Odesa Oblast, southwestern Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Kiliia urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Kiliia is located in the Danube Delta, in the historic Bessarabian dist ...

(

Odesa Oblast Odesa Oblast (), also referred to as Odeshchyna (Одещина), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) of southwestern Ukraine, located along the northern coast of the Black Sea. Its administrative centre is the city of Ode ...

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...

, Soviet Union. He went to school in

Odesa Odesa, also spelled Odessa, is the third most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern ...

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, ...

, and

Zaporizhia Zaporizhzhia, formerly known as Aleksandrovsk or Oleksandrivsk until 1921, is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zaporizhzhia has a population of ...

. Eventually, the family settled in Kyiv. In 1994, Prystaiko graduated ''

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

'' from the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute's Faculty of Computer Science. In 1998, he received a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

from the

Ukrainian State University of Finance and International Trade Ukrainian State University of Finance and International Trade is a Ukrainian university. Post address: Chygorin Street 57, Kyiv, Ukraine 01601 History USUFIT was created on March 14, 2007 by the Order of Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No 98, ...

. In addition to his native Ukrainian, he is fluent in

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 ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

Career

Prystaiko began his career in the

private business A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in their respective listed markets. Instead, the company's stock is ...

sector. He was a co-founder of one of the first Ukrainian

Internet providers An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non ...

and

electronic media Electronic media are media that use electronics or electromechanical means for the audience to access the content. This is in contrast to static media (mainly print media), which today are most often created digitally, but do not require ele ...

''Electronni Visti''. In 1994, following his family's tradition of government service, he obtained a position at the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations of Ukraine. At that time, the Ministry was expanding rapidly as Ukraine began to negotiate with

GATT The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is a legal agreement between many countries, whose overall purpose was to promote international trade by reducing or eliminating trade barriers such as tariffs or quotas. According to its p ...

WTO The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland that regulates and facilitates international trade. Governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that g ...

. In 1997, he took a position in the economic section of the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs 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 estab ...

, where he tried to develop trade with Asian countries. It was the most important task because, at that time, the Ministry initiated negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the GATT/WTO and started to look for new opportunities for Ukrainian business in the markets, especially in Africa and Asia. In 1997, he moved to the Asia-Pacific Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2000, Prystaiko became a consul to

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Australia, where he was involved in political and economic issues. In 2002, he started working at the Foreign Policy Directorate of the Administration of the President of Ukraine

Leonid Kuchma Leonid Danylovych Kuchma (, ; born 9 August 1938) is a Ukrainian politician who was the second president of Ukraine, serving from 19 July 1994 to 23 January 2005. The only president of Ukraine to serve two terms, his presidency was marked by demo ...

. In December 2004, Prystaiko was appointed as a political

counselor Counselor or counsellor may refer to: A professional In diplomacy and government * Counsellor of State, senior member of the British royal family to whom the Monarch can delegate some functions in case of unavailability * Counselor (dipl ...

to the Embassy of Ukraine in Canada. Two years later, he became the acting ''chargé d'affaires'' (temporary counsel for Ukraine in Canada). In 2007, he was a part of Ukraine's NATO negotiating team and served as the Deputy Director-General for NATO in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2009, he became Deputy Chief of the Mission at the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington D.C.. On 8 November 2012, the President of Ukraine

Viktor Yanukovich Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych (born 9 July 1950) is a Ukrainian politician who served as the fourth president of Ukraine from 2010 to 2014. He also served as the prime minister of Ukraine several times between 2002 and 2007 and was a member of t ...

appointed Prystaiko as Ambassador of Ukraine to Canada. He became also a Ukrainian representative in the International Civil Aviation Organisation. In December 2014, he was named Deputy Foreign Minister and head of the apparatus under Foreign Minister

Pavlo Klimkin Pavlo Anatoliiovych Klimkin (; born 25 December 1967) is a Ukrainian diplomat who from 19 June 2014 until 29 August 2019 served as Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Ukraine), Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. A Moscow-educated physicist, he has ...

. He was Head of the Mission of Ukraine to NATO from 7 July 2017 until 29 August 2019. On 22 May 2019, Prystaiko was appointed Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration by the decree of the President of Ukraine. He was a Member of the National Investment Council (21 June 2019). On 29 August 2019, he became Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in the Government of

Oleksiy Honcharuk Oleksiy Valeriyovych Honcharuk (, ; born 7 July 1984) is a Ukrainian politician. He served as the Prime Minister of Ukraine from 29 August 2019 to 4 March 2020 following a 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, landslide parliamentary election ...

. But on 4 March 2020, he was released from the post and appointed Vice Prime Minister for Euro-Atlantic Integration in the Government of

Denys Shmyhal Denys Anatoliiovych Shmyhal (, ; born 15 October 1975) is a Ukrainian politician and entrepreneur who has served as the 18th and current prime minister of Ukraine since 2020. Before his appointment as prime minister, Shmyhal was the governor ...

. On 4 June 2020, he was released from this post. From 20 July 2020 to 21 July 2023, he was Ambassador of Ukraine to the UK. On 30 December 2020, Prystaiko became a Representative of Ukraine in the

International Maritime Organization The International Maritime Organization (IMO; ; ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for regulating maritime transport. The IMO was established following agreement at a ...

(IMO). In February 2022, during the

prelude to the Russian invasion of Ukraine In March and April 2021, prior to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian Armed Forces began massing thousands of personnel and military equipment near Russia's border with Ukraine and in Crimea, representing the largest mobil ...

, Prystaiko said UK defence secretary's Ben Wallace's comparison of diplomatic efforts with

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

to the

appeasement Appeasement, in an International relations, international context, is a diplomacy, diplomatic negotiation policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power (international relations), power with intention t ...

policies of the 1930s was unhelpful. Prystaiko warned, "There's panic everywhere, not just in people's minds, but in financial markets as well" and it was "hurting the Ukrainian economy on sort of the same level as people leaving the embassy". On 21 July 2023, Prystaiko was sacked as Ukraine's ambassador to the United Kingdom by President Zelenskyy using a Presidential decree. No reason as to the sacking was given. He was also sacked from his role as the Ukrainian representative to the

Personal life

Prystayko's father (1941–2008) was Lieutenant General of Justice and Vice director of the SBU, and in 1991 he started working in a commission of adaptation of laws to EU standards and on rehabilitation of politically repressed. He was an Honored Lawyer of Ukraine. He is married to Inna Prystaiko. They have two sons.

References

External links

Пристайко Вадим Володимирович
– Vadym Volodomyrovych Prystaiko
Vadym Prystaiko
Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and head of the apparatus
list
of Ukrainian ambassadors in Canada
Vadym Prystaiko
Ambassador of Ukraine to Canada
Event of Empire Club on 4 April 2014, personal career of Vadym Prystaiko
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prystaiko, Vadym 1970 births Living people 20th-century diplomats 21st-century diplomats Ambassadors of Ukraine to Canada Ambassadors of Ukraine to the United Kingdom European integration ministers of Ukraine Ministers of foreign affairs of Ukraine Heads of mission of Ukraine to NATO Permanent representatives of Ukraine to the International Maritime Organization Kyiv Polytechnic Institute alumni National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine People from Kiliia Vice prime ministers of Ukraine Ukrainian State University of Finance and International Trade alumni

Early life

Career

Personal life

See also

References

External links