Zelenskyy: senior aide Palisa turns down US ambassador post

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Yuliia Svyrydenko, Dmytro Kuleba and Pavlo Palisa have been among the candidates considered for the post of Ukraine's ambassador to the United States.

As reported by Ukrinform, Zelenskyy said Palisa, Deputy Head of the President's Office, had turned down the position and said he wants to return to the line of contact rather than leave Ukraine.

"We have discussed the candidacies of Yuliia Svyrydenko, Dmytro Kuleba and Pavlo Palisa, because he has an American education and speaks the language. There is a lot of work to be done there specifically on military matters, and Trump knows him. Palisa would be a good ambassador, but he doesn't want to. He said: 'Send me to the line of contact, get me back to my brigade urgently. I'm not going anywhere outside Ukraine,'" he said.

Zelenskyy noted that consultations on appointing Ukraine's ambassador to the US will continue.

Pavlo Palisa is a Ukrainian military officer, a brigadier general, who has been awarded the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi. He also serves as a deputy head of the President's Office.

Palisa denied rumours that he might be appointed Ukraine's ambassador to the US. He noted that, under Ukrainian law, he cannot serve in the military and diplomatic services simultaneously.

Zelenskyy relieved Olha Stefanishyna of her post as Ukraine's ambassador to the US on 3 August. The post has remained vacant ever since.