Ukraine Replaces Its Ambassador to Austria
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has ordered the recall of the current ambassador to Vienna, Vasyl Khymynets. Following a standard five-year term of service, a generational change is imminent at the Ukrainian mission in Austria.
The Ukrainian ambassador to Austria, Vasyl Khymynets, was recalled after nearly five years. / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons/ BMEIA / Gruber / CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a decree initiating a change at the helm of Ukrainian diplomacy in Austria. Ambassador Vasyl Khymynets, who has served in Vienna since fall 2021, is being recalled from his post. The text of the decree was published on the official website of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
It has not yet been officially announced who will succeed him at the embassy in Vienna. However, speculation is mounting in Kyiv's diplomatic circles that the choice is likely to fall on a representative of a younger generation of diplomats with extensive experience in Austria.
“The usual five years are up”
The recalled ambassador himself reacted calmly to the decision from Kyiv. “This decree comes as no surprise to me, because the usual five years are up,” Khymynets told the APA as reported by Kronen Zeitung. At the time of the announcement, the diplomat was on a business trip in Kyiv but will return to Vienna to hand over his official duties.
Khymynets, born in 1970, was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Austria by President Zelenskyy on July 30, 2021. His tenure was marked by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. In recent years, the main focus of his work has been on securing Austria’s solidarity and support for his war-torn homeland on the diplomatic, economic, and humanitarian levels.
Diplomatic Career and Ties to Austria
Vasyl Khymynets looks back on a decades-long career in Ukraine’s diplomatic service. Born in Uzhhorod, he studied German language and literature and economics at Uzhhorod National University. In 2008, he earned his doctorate with a dissertation on Ukrainian-German relations.
Between 1997 and 2001, Khymynets served as Second Secretary at the Ukrainian Embassy in Austria, where he gained his first formative experiences in the country. In addition to holding leadership positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kyiv, he served from 2009 to 2015 as Minister-Counselor and, at times, as Chargé d’Affaires at the Ukrainian Embassy in Berlin, before taking over the Department for Europe at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.