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Sergiy Kyslytsya | |
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Сергій Кислиця | |
 Official portrait, 2020 | |
| First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
| Assumed office 13 February 2025 | |
| President | Volodymyr Zelenskyy |
| Minister | Andrii Sybiha |
| Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations | |
| In office 18 December 2019 – 21 December 2024 | |
| President | Volodymyr Zelenskyy |
| Preceded by | Volodymyr Yelchenko |
| Succeeded by | Khrystyna Gayovyshyn (acting) |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1969-08-15)15 August 1969 (age 56) |
| Children | 1 |
| Education | Kyiv University (MA) |
Sergiy[a] Olehovych Kyslytsya (Ukrainian:Сергій Олегович Кислиця,romanized: Serhii Olehovych Kyslytsia; born 15 August 1969) is aUkrainian career diplomat, who serves as Ambassador Extraordinary. He had previously served as DeputyMinister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine (2014–2019),[1][2] Plenipotentiary ofUkraine andPermanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations (2019–2024).[3]
Born inKyiv,Ukraine on 15 August 1969. Kyslytsya graduated cum laude fromTaras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv with a Master of Arts degree in International Law.[4] He is fluent inUkrainian,English,Russian,Spanish andFrench.[4]
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 ofUkraine; Senior Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Group of Advisers and Ambassadors at Large, MFA, Ukraine.[1]
In 2001, Kyslytsya became the Political Counselor at theEmbassy 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.[citation needed]
Kyslytsya was appointed the DeputyMinister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in 2014.[6][7][8] Kyslytsya was Deputy Minister during theAnnexation 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.[3] Kyslytsya also concurrently served as Ukraine's Ambassador toTrinidad and Tobago.[11][12]
Kyslytsya was appointed to be thePermanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations in 2019.
In 2021, Kyslytsya was awarded theOrder 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]
On 21 December 2024, Kyslytsya dismissed from the position during diplomatic sector rotations carried out by President Zelenskyy. He was succeeded by Khrystyna Gayovyshyn (acting).[14][15]
On 13 February 2025 Kyslytsya was appointed the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.[16][14]
In early 2022, Kyslytsya gained international media attention when he made a series of comments in relation to the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, including condemnations of the Russian PresidentVladimir Putin and Russian Representative to the UNVasily 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 RepresentativeVasily Nebenzya to "callLavrov 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 topurgatory, but "straight tohell," which generated substantial media attention.[17][18][19]
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".[20]
A draft resolution submitted by theUnited States andAlbania condemning Russian aggression ultimately failed due to Russia'sveto. Kyslytsya slammed the Russian actions as unjustifiable and the Russian delegation as untrustworthy.[21]
| UN General Assembly | |
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 Addressing UN General Assembly on 28 February 2022 |
On 28 February, during aspecial 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 dowhat the guy in Berlindid in a bunker in May 1945."[22][23]
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.[24] 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".[24][25]
-Order of Merit of the 3rd degree (22 December 2021) -For significant personal contribution to strengthening international cooperation of Ukraine, many years of fruitful diplomatic activity and high professionalism.[27]{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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