At the same time Zelenskyy has dismissed Yelchenko from the post of Ukraine’s envoy to the United Nations and that of the ambassador of Ukraine to Jamaica. The relevant decree was posted on the website of the head of State on December 19.
Since 2015, Volodymyr Yelchenko has acted as the permanent envoy of Ukraine to the United Nations Organization. During the period from 2010 to 2015, he served as the ambassador of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.
The position of the head of the Ukrainian diplomatic office in Washington has been empty since the discharge of former Ambassador Valeriy Chaliy.
As it’s been reported earlier, the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine since June 2019, William Taylor who has testified before the U.S. Congressional House regarding the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump is going to step down by the end of this year and leave Ukraine.
Foreign Minister of Ukraine Vadym Prystaiko said at a talk show on the TV channel “Ukraine-24” that the United States had not yet informed Ukraine about the potential candidacy of its future ambassador to this country. According to some American sources, retired Lt. Gen. Keith W. Dayton is being considered for the job of a new ambassador to Ukraine. Dayton currently serves as director of the Pentagon-affiliated George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Germany. Another candidate is Philip T. Reeker, the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs.
Minister Prystaiko said that one of these days the Foreign Office would report on future contacts between Ukraine and the Trump Administration. This information was confirmed by the American magazine Politico. In particular, the analyst says that Trump administration officials are taking steps to stabilize the U.S. relationship with Ukraine amid an impeachment inquiry that has badly damaged ties between the two countries.
U.S. State Secretary Michael Pompeo is expected to visit Ukraine in early January in a show of support. The latests reports of Ukrainian media inform that America’s top diplomat will stay in Ukraine on a two-day official visit.
On December 18, the U.S. House of Representatives voted for giving Ukraine next year a financial aid package to a sum of 698 million dollars which is 2.3 million more than this year. The decision is to be approved by the Senate.
Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur said that “today when the whole world is concerned about the politization of the issue of financial support of Ukraine by the U.S. Administration, these new measures of the Congress send a signal of a reliable and powerful bipartisan support of the democratic way of Ukraine, free from Russian aggression. The Congress does not have to allow this or any other administration to illegally withhold such support”.
The 2020 U.S. military budget coordinated by congressmen earlier includes a 300 million dollar aid package for Ukraine.
The newspaper Holos Ukrainy
