Zelensky grants parliament speaker Stefanchuk ambassador's rank
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on August 25 granted the diplomatic rank of extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador to Verkhovna Rada Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk. The same decree gave a lower ambassadorial rank to diplomatic academy director Ihor Ostash.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on August 25 granting Verkhovna Rada Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk the diplomatic rank of extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador. The decision was published on the presidential administration's website.
The same decree also granted the rank of extraordinary and plenipotentiary envoy, second class, to Ihor Ostash, director of the Hennadiy Udovenko Diplomatic Academy under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Who is Ihor Ostash
According to the Foreign Ministry, Ostash previously served as Ukraine's extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador to Canada and Lebanon. He also represented Ukraine at the International Civil Aviation Organization and served multiple terms as a member of parliament, including chairing the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs. Since August 2024 he has worked as an out-of-staff adviser to the foreign minister.
Historical context
A similar move occurred on May 18, 2019, when then-President Petro Poroshenko granted ambassadorial rank to Volodymyr Ariev, head of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly's Committee on Culture, Education, Science and Media, and to Artur Herasymov, head of the Verkhovna Rada's permanent delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.
