Who is Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine’s new foreign minister?

In a major government reshuffle, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was replaced on Sept. 5 by his deputy, Andrii Sybiha.
Sybiha’s candidacy was backed by 258 members of the Ukrainian parliament.
Although reports of a possible government reshuffle emerged several months ago, for many Ukrainian and international observers, the news of Kuleba’s resignation came as a surprise.
The ousted foreign minister has not commented on his resignation, and the Ukrainian political leadership has not officially elaborated on the reasons for his replacement.
For Kuleba’s successor, career diplomat Sybiha, leading Ukraine’s foreign service is a new yet not completely unknown task.
Avoiding the public eye, Sybiha was leading diplomatic efforts in the President’s Office, that slowly but surely overtook the Foreign Ministry as the key institution dealing with the country’s foreign affairs.
After being appointed as Kuleba’s deputy in April, people in power who spoke with the Kyiv Independent on conditions of anonymity, said back then that it was a matter of time that Sybiha would get the top job.
Sybiha was born in 1975 in the town of Zboriv in Ukraine’s western Ternopil Oblast.
He started his career in 1997 as an attache and secretary of the Foreign Ministry. Sybiha graduated from the Ivan Franko University of Lviv with a degree in international relations the same year, and later obtained a law degree.
Over the next few years, Sybiha held several positions at the Foreign Ministry. Since 2008, he has been Minister Counselor at Ukraine’s Embassy in Poland, and four years later, he was appointed director of the consular service department at the Foreign Ministry.
In 2016, Sybiha was sent to Turkey as Ukraine’s ambassador to Ankara.
After five years in office, Sybiha was dismissed by President Volodymyr Zelensky, following a “planned rotation.” Soon, he returned to Kyiv to join Zelensky’s team as the deputy head of the President’s Office, led by Andrii Yermak.
Sybiha was in charge of foreign policy, a job that became critical following the start of Russia’s all-out war.
As Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the President’s Office took over much of the Foreign Ministry’s tasks, sometimes creating backdoors to established long-standing diplomatic channels.
Sybiha was among the first to announce that Ukraine signed an application to join the European Union four days after the start of the full-scale war.
Among them was the signing of Ukraine’s EU membership application, a historic step days after the start of the all-out war.
Sybiha’s main task was to assist Yermak, his direct supervisor and the president, holding meetings with foreign diplomats and officials, and being at Zelensky’s side during phone conversations with Western leaders.
Speaking in parliament on Sept. 5, Sybiha outlined his main priorities for his new job. He said that making sure Ukraine receives the weapons it needs will be his top priority while in office.
His appointment came at a time when Kyiv continues to call on Western countries to allow the use of certain Western-supplied long-range weapons against targets on Russian soil. Key partners, such as the U.S. and the U.K., have partially lifted the ban.
In addition, Sybiha’s predecessor in office, Kuleba, said that some promised Patriot air defense systems have not yet been delivered.
“I don’t think he (Sybiha) can be better (than Kuleba). He may be new or different,” Ukrainian political observer Mykola Davydiuk told the Kyiv Independent. Given Sybiha’s close ties to Yermak, Davydiuk also suggests that the President’s Office could have seen more “loyalty” in his candidacy.
Hanna Hopko, former lawmaker, co-founder of the International Center for Ukrainian Victory, and head of the Ants think tank, echoes Davydiuk’s claims, saying that it is important to preserve the Foreign Ministry’s independence.
“The issue is not about changing the names of diplomats. The question is about the system that should allow the minister, having those powers, to work effectively, and not be part (a presidential) structure,” she told the Kyiv Independent.
Yet, both speakers agree that coordination is needed in times of war.
“War is a team sport,” Davydiuk said, and everyone should work together no matter if they like the new appointment or not.