List of ambassadors of Ukraine to the United States

The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the United States of America (Ukrainian: Надзвичайний і Повноважний посол України в Сполучені Штати Америки) is the ambassador of Ukraine to the United States.^[1][2] The ambassador is responsible for diplomatically representing and promoting Ukraine's interests in the U.S., with Ukrainian ambassadors having full authority to act on behalf of the Ukrainian government.^[1] Ambassadors are appointed and dismissed by the President of Ukraine, typically on the recommendation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs.^[3][1] If the ambassador has an absence from their position or if the position is left vacant, a Chargé d'Affaires ad interim (Ukrainian: Тимчасовий повірений у справах), typically the deputy chief of mission, an attaché, or some other member of the embassy's diplomat staff, will be selected to fulfill the position's responsibilities in the intervening time until the ambassador returns or a new one is appointed. Since the start of the ambassadorship to the U.S., individuals holding the position have also typically been co-accredited as the head Ukrainian diplomat to multiple small neighboring countries as well as some international organizations such as the OAS. These concurrent responsibilities are assigned at the discretion of the Ukrainian president and agreement of the represented country/organization, in which the ambassador to the U.S. is authorized to represent Ukrainian interests in the additional countries/organizations (with no day-to-day physical presence in those countries/organizations) as an ambassador-at-large, working remotely on a part-time basis from the Ukrainian embassy in Washington, D.C. Appointments to ambassador-at-large positions are generally carried out at some later point during the ambassador to the U.S.'s tenure.

The country's first independent diplomatic mission to the U.S. began in 1919, when the executive council of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR), a historical predecessor to modern-day Ukraine, approved on January 6 the mission's budget and appointed its staff on January 10.^[4] Officially titled the Extraordinary Diplomatic Mission of the UPR to the US, the mission was established approximately a year after the UPR government had declared its independence from the Russian Empire.^[5][6] The first head of the mission was Ukrainian politician Yevhen Holitsynsky who served as the chief of the mission from his appointment on 10 January 1919 until his reassignment as the UPR's ambassador to Estonia on 8 April later that year.^{[7][full citation needed]} Following Holitsynsky's reassignment, Ukrainian politician and writer Yulian Bachynsky^[8] who had previously served as part of the mission staff was appointed acting head before the mission was dissolved by the UPR government due to significant financial strain as it soon after went into exile when the country's territory was divided between the Second Polish Republic and the pro-Soviet Russian states of Soviet Belarus and Soviet Ukraine in the Treaty of Riga, signed on 18 March 1921.^{[9][10][full citation needed]} Due to the lack of formal U.S. recognition of the independence of the UPR during its existence, the UPR had no embassy in the U.S. (i.e. no permanent diplomatic mission) and thus, both Holitsynsky and Bachynsky served as envoys rather than ambassadors.

From 1933^[a] to 1991, Ukraine was represented to the United States and the rest of the international community as part of the Soviet Union, although it gained de jure separate membership in the United Nations as the Ukrainian SSR at the UN's founding in 1945, as well as in a number of other intergovernmental organizations over the years.^[14][15][16] When the Soviet Union began to dissolve, the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR adopted an act on 24 August 1991 declaring the country's independence as modern-day Ukraine.^[17] Following a national referendum in favor of independence and the country's signing of the Belovezha Accords, which formally dissolved the Soviet Union,^[17] the United States recognized Ukraine on 25 December 1991.^[18] After the U.S.'s recognition and the start of bilateral relations on 3 January 1992,^[19] Ukrainian diplomat Sergiy Kulyk served as the Chargé d'Affaires of the Ukrainian diplomatic mission as it established itself in its embassy in Washington, D.C.^[20] On 3 June 1992, Ukrainian politician and professor Oleh Bilorus was appointed by President Leonid Kravchuk as the first ambassador to the U.S.^[21][22][23] Since Bilorus left the position on 12 September 1994,^[24] ten individuals have been appointed as ambassadors to the U.S.^[19][25] The longest-serving ambassador is Oleksandr Motsyk, who represented Ukraine from 11 June 2010 to 14 April 2015,^[26][27][28] while the shortest tenure as an ambassador is held by Anton Buteyko, who served from 18 November 1998 to 24 December 1999.^[29][30][31] Oksana Markarova, ambassador from 25 February 2021 to 27 August 2025, is the first woman to serve as ambassador to the U.S.^[32] The most recent ambassador is Olha Stefanishyna, who was dismissed from the position by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on 3 August 2026 amid an investigation into failure to disclose assets.^[33]