Zelenskyy appoints former MP Zalishchuk as Ambassador to Sweden

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appointed former Verkhovna Rada member Svitlana Zalishchuk as Ambassador to Sweden. This is stated in decree No. 556 of July 28, the Ukrainian News agency reports.

“To appoint Zalishchuk Svitlana Petrivna as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Kingdom of Sweden,” the document states.

42-year-old Zalishchuk was a non-staff advisor in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration before her appointment as ambassador.

In 2021-2022, she was an advisor to the Chairman of the Board of Naftogaz on international issues.

In 2014-2019, Zalishchuk was a Member of Parliament of the 8th convocation of the Rada, elected from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc party on a party list, in the Rada she was the head of the subcommittee on Euro-Atlantic cooperation and European integration of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Previously, she worked as a journalist.

In 2006, Zalishchuk graduated from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Institute of Journalism, and received a master’s degree. In 2008, she became a fellow of the John Smith Program (the United Kingdom), where she studied the functioning of democratic institutions. In 2011, she was an internship participant at the Draper Hills Summer Fellowship (Stanford).

In 2018, she married British lawyer (Crown attorney) Wayne Jordash, they are raising a son, Sava.

In her 2024 tax return, Zalishchuk indicated that she received a 2018 AUDI Q8 worth UAH 2 million as a gift from her brother. Last year, she was engaged in entrepreneurial activities, receiving UAH 1.4 million in income. Another UAH 500,000 were fees at Ukrnafta. Zalishchuk’s husband earned UAH 10 million last year at Global Rights Compliance.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on July 21, Zelenskyy appointed Andrii Plakhotniuk as Ambassador to Canada instead of Yuliia Kovaliv. At the same time, Zelenskyy dismissed 49-year-old Plakhotniuk from the post of Ambassador to Sweden, which he had held since September 2020.