Volodymyr Stanislavovych Ohryzko (; b. 1 April 1956) is a Ukrainian diplomat. He served as the

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

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 ...

from December 18, 2007 to March 3, 2009, when he was fired by the

Ukrainian Parliament The Verkhovna Rada ( ; VR), officially the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, is the unicameral parliament of Ukraine. It consists of 450 deputies presided over by a speaker. The Verkhovna Rada meets in the Verkhovna Rada building in Ukraine's capi ...

. On March 17, 2009 Ohryzko was appointed First Deputy Secretary of the

National Security and Defense Council 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 ...

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 ...

Viktor Yushchenko Viktor Andriiovych Yushchenko (, ; born 23 February 1954) is a Ukrainian politician who was the third president of Ukraine from 23 January 2005 to 25 February 2010. He aimed to orient Ukraine towards Western world, the West, European Union, and N ...

Resignation

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Yulia Tymoshenko Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko ( Hrihyan born 27 November 1960) is a Ukrainian politician, who served as Prime Minister of Ukraine in 2005, and again from 2007 until 2010; the first and only woman in Ukraine to hold that position. She has been ...

commented on the resignation: "If there were no crisis, he should have been dismissed long ago. I think all questions have been failed. The systematic work on discrediting the government was performed by Mr. Ohryzko". Tymoshenko said she had applied to the faction of the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT) at Parliament with a request not to vote for the dismissal of Ohryzko cause that would stir up the political situation in the country.

called the dismissal of Ohryzko an "untimely and unfounded move from the

Verkhovna Rada The Verkhovna Rada ( ; VR), officially the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, is the unicameralism, unicameral parliament of Ukraine. It consists of 450 Deputy (legislator), deputies presided over by a speaker. The Verkhovna Rada meets in the Verkhovn ...

". On March 4, 2009 the faction of BYuT at the Verkhovna Rada pledged its preparedness to support reinstatement of Volodymyr Ohryzko as Foreign Minister ("For the sake of preservation of the majority coalition and further effective work of the parliament of Ukraine") if he would apologies to Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and the Cabinet of Ministers for his actions that, in the opinion of the BYuT caused damage to the reputation of Ukraine. 49 MPs out of 156 from the faction of BYuT voted in favour of the dismissal of Ohryzko a day earlier. Despite this, Ohryzko asked President Viktor Yushchenko not to nominate him for the post of Foreign Affairs Minister in the Cabinet of Ministers on March 5, 2009 and accused BYuT of developing its own foreign policy in parallel to the government's foreign policy. Ohryzko was placed at number 3 on the electoral list of Ukrainian Platform "Sobor" during the

2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine on 28 October 2012.Parli ...

. But on 15 October 2012 the party withdrew itself from the national list of this election. After the resignation, in 2013, Ohryzko have said that it was a big mistake for Ukraine to pause the association agreement with the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

Awards

*The 3rd Class of the

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 ...

(2006) *The Cross of Ivan Mazepa (2010)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ohryzko, Volodymyr Ministers of foreign affairs of Ukraine Recipients of the Order of Merit (Ukraine), 3rd class Recipients of the Cross of Ivan Mazepa Diplomats from Kyiv Ambassadors of Ukraine to Austria Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv alumni 1956 births Living people Republican Platform politicians Recipients of the Honorary Diploma of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine