Zelenskyy’s personnel puzzle Why can’t Kyiv find an ambassador for Washington?

Washington remains Kyiv’s key foreign-policy and military partner, while relations with the Trump administration require a particular degree of diplomatic skill from the Ukrainian side. Against this backdrop, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has faced a difficult dilemma: Kyiv cannot find anyone willing to take up the post of Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States.

The problem has become so serious that it has already attracted the attention of Politico, which cites former and current senior Ukrainian officials. According to the publication, Zelenskyy would like to see someone of the rank of deputy prime minister, minister, or even former prime minister in Washington. Yet potential candidates are in no hurry to accept a position that is regarded in Kyiv as exceptionally difficult and exhausting, requiring the ability to walk a diplomatic tightrope.

This, in turn, raises a question that appears to be far broader than a single diplomatic vacancy: Why does the Ukrainian president, who has spent nearly seven years building his own system of government, have such a limited pool of available talent? This is also evident in the fact that, throughout Zelenskyy’s presidency, we have repeatedly seen the same people move from one key position to another, changing offices, titles, and responsibilities.

The figures of Rustem Umerov and Denys Shmyhal are perhaps the most telling examples in this regard. The former headed the State Property Fund of Ukraine before becoming defense minister in September 2023, a position he left in July 2025. In early August this year, he was appointed head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine.

Shmyhal, in turn, is an even more striking example of such personnel versatility. He served as head of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional State Administration, then as deputy prime minister and minister for the development of communities and territories, before serving as prime minister for more than five years. After leaving the government, he became defense minister, and since January 2026 has served as first deputy prime minister and minister of energy.

Thus, what we see is a textbook example of a kind of personnel carousel: one official is removed from one strategic position and moved to another, while another is transferred from the government to the defense ministry and then to the energy sector. Even in peacetime, such an arrangement would be questionable. In wartime, however, the problem takes on an entirely different dimension, leaving the president effectively hostage to his own limited circle of personnel. The story of the ambassador to the United States illustrates this problem in its entirety.

It is worth adding here that one of the leading candidates initially considered for the post of Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States was former Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko. Volodymyr Zelenskyy himself confirmed that he had offered her the position. She ultimately turned it down, explaining that she did not consider the post suitable for her. Perhaps this was because she was being tipped to become the new head of Naftogaz, Ukraine’s state-owned oil and gas company. Incidentally, current Prime Minister Serhiy Koretsky previously headed that very company.

It is reasonable to assume that financial considerations may also have played a role in Svyrydenko’s decision. According to Koretsky’s 2025 declaration, he earned more than 28.6 million hryvnias (about $629,000) from his work at Naftogaz, Ukrnafta, and Ukrtatnafta, while his total income exceeded 32.2 million hryvnias (about $708,000). 

Moreover, the Ukrainian embassy in the United States means maintaining constant contact with the White House, Congress, the Pentagon, the State Department, and the American media. It is a position in which the ambassador must respond on a daily basis to policy decisions by an administration that can shift its position on the war, arms supplies, and the terms of a future settlement relatively quickly. In other words, Washington is pursuing its own diplomatic strategy, seeking to bring the war to an end.

That is precisely why Kyiv needs more than a diplomat with an impressive résumé in the United States. It needs a political heavyweight — and, unfortunately, there are not that many such figures among Ukrainian politicians and diplomats. Admittedly, some do exist in the opposing camp. But Zelenskyy is hardly likely to appoint one of his political opponents to such a crucial post, even if that person were a top-level professional and a committed Ukrainian patriot.