Vadym Prystaiko
Vadym Volodymyrovych Prystaiko is a Ukrainian diplomat, and Ukraine's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United Kingdom. He was appointed by President Volodymyr Zelensky on 20 July 2020.
Prystaiko is a former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and former Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine. Between 2014 and 2019, he was also the Ukrainian ambassador to Canada between 2012 and 2014 and the head of the Mission of Ukraine to NATO. In May 2019 Prystaiko served as the Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration.Biography
Prystaiko was born on 20 February 1970 in the city of Kiliya, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union. He went to school in Odesa, Kyiv and Zaporizhia. Eventually, the family settled in Kyiv.
His father was General lieutenant of Justice and Vice director of SBU, but since 1991 he worked in a commission of adaptation of laws to EU standards and on rehabilitation of politically repressed.
He is married to Inna Prystaiko; they have two sons Volodymyr and Andrii. He likes sports, earning a black belt in Taekwondo.
In 1994, Prystaiko graduated cum laude from the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute's Department of Computer Science. In 1998, he received a master's degree from the Ukrainian State University of Finance and International Trade. He is fluent in Ukrainian, Russian and English.
He began his professional career in the private business sector. He was a co-founder of one of the first Ukrainian Internet providers and electronic media outlets "Electronni Visti".
In 1994, following his family's tradition of government service, he obtained a position at the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations of Ukraine. At that time, the Ministry was expanding rapidly as Ukraine began to negotiate with GATT/WTO.
In 1997, he was transferred to the economic section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, where he tried among other things to develop trade with Asian countries. In 2000, Prystaiko became a consul to Sydney, Australia where he was involved mostly with political and economic issues. Since 2002 he worked in the Foreign Policy Directorate of the Administration of the President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma. In December 2004, he was posted as a political counselor to the Embassy of Ukraine in Canada. Two years later he became the acting chargé d'affaires.
In 2007, he was part of Ukraine's NATO negotiating team, and served as the Deputy Director General for NATO in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2009, he became Deputy Chief of the Mission at the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington D.C.
On November 8, 2012 the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovich appointed Prystaiko as Ambassador of Ukraine to Canada. He became also Ukrainian representative in the International Organization of Civil Aviation.
In December 2014 he was named Deputy Foreign Minister and head of the apparatus under Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin.
Head of the Mission of Ukraine to NATO.
