In a move that corresponds to the recent announcement by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to
Clarín
that his country will increase ties with Latin America and Argentina, President Volodimir Zelenski
appointed a new ambassador to Argentina.
This is
Yuriy Klymenko
, who this Friday will present his credentials as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary in this country before the Argentine Foreign Ministry.
Klymenko was Ukraine's special representative for conflict resolution in Transnistria (The Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, internationally recognized as part of Moldova).
But two presidential decrees from Zelenski changed his destiny from there to Buenos Aires.
The news has two facts in the first instance to highlight:
for more than three years there has been no Ukrainian ambassador in Argentina.
The last one was Yuriy Diudin, and his term ended in parallel to the assumption of the government of Alberto Fernández.
Since then,
the embassy has been under the command of the charge d'affaires, Sergiy Nebrat.
Secondly, his appointment coincides
with the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine,
a country with which the Fernández government was turning its position.
The close alliance that Kirchnerism maintained with Vladimir Putin later turned into a
condemnation of the invasion
and a request that Russia withdraw its troops from Ukraine and make way for peace.
Yuriy Klymenko will be the new extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador of Ukraine in Argentina
And although there has not been a strong link with Ukraine, Nebrat told Clarín this Thursday
that
they were grateful for the humanitarian aid sent, which already had twelve different loads, managed by the White Helmets.
At the same time, Nebrat spared no claims.
As his country has already done on other occasions, and as this newspaper has reported, he considered that
the Argentine government could implement "more sanctions against Russia."
He specifically called for "sanctions" on agriculture, "decrease the number of Russian diplomats" at the embassy.
Nebrat spoke this Thursday with
Clarín
at the headquarters of ICANA (the Argentine American Cultural Institute) Buenos Aires, where there was an act for the anniversary of the invasion, in which Putin's attitude was repudiated again.
This was organized by its president, Santiago del Sel, and the United States ambassador, Mark Stanley.
Also present were the ambassadors Amador Sánchez Rico (European Union), Dan Petre (Romania), Aleksandra Piątkowska (Poland), Yamauchi Hiroshi (Japan) and Fabrizio Lucentini (Italy).
The group posed for a photo with the Ukrainian flag and a sunflower each, the national flower of kyiv.
For his part, Stanley, who qualifies the Russian military incursion as "brutal aggression", told ICANA that "Europe and other countries have responded very well to Ukraine's needs."
He recalled that in the last month, the German chancellor and the Japanese foreign minister traveled to Buenos Aires and that both had said that it was "very important that all countries, including those in Latin America, give more support to Ukraine
.
" .
He then said:
"Argentina has voted forcefully and, in my opinion, correctly
, in the United Nations system to denounce Russian aggression and defend Ukraine. But as long as Russia decides to continue this war,
more needs to be done.
Democratic governments must be united to defend democratic values and human rights."
The year of the war will be remembered this Friday in other acts.
Ambassador Sánchez Rico will meet the diplomatic corps that repudiates the invasion.
In the afternoon, the Undersecretary for International Relations of the Legislature, Pablo Garzonio, will also receive the ambassadors on the occasion of the year of the war.
This meeting is possibly attended by Klymenko, who is already in the country.
who is the new ambassador
Yuriy Klymenko has worked in the diplomatic service since 1992, points out a profile of the future Ukrainian ambassador in Argentina published by his country's press.
He worked both within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in embassies in other countries.
In 2005-2006 he was consul in the Greek city of Thessaloniki and in 2006-2010
he was consul in the Spanish city of Barcelona.
The Babel.ua site reports that he later went to work in the Presidential Administration, where he was engaged in international relations.
And that between 2013 and 2021, he was the Ukrainian ambassador to international organizations in Geneva.
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