'At a critical time' — Zelensky appoints new head of Ukraine's mission to NATO
President Volodymyr Zelensky on June 13 appointed Aliona Hetmanchuk as the head of Ukraine’s mission to NATO, replacing Nataliia Halibarenko.
The appointment came “at a critical time for the future of Ukraine, for the future of NATO itself, and, of course, for Ukraine’s future in NATO. I realize the responsibility,” Hetmanchuk said on her Facebook page on June 13.
“As for this moment, we will be fully immersed in preparations for the summit in The Hague,” she added, referring to the upcoming NATO summit that will take place in the Netherlands on June 24 and 25, with Ukraine participating.
Hetmanchuk is a leading Ukrainian foreign policy expert with a background in journalism. She is the founder and director of the New Europe Center and a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.
Previously, Hetmanchuk co-founded and directed the Institute of World Policy and has advised the Presidential Consultation Committee between Ukraine and Poland since 2016.
Ukraine applied for alliance membership in September 2022, several months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion. While NATO has repeatedly affirmed that Kyiv will eventually join, it has yet to extend a formal invitation.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on June 9 that the political commitment to Ukraine’s future membership in NATO remains unchanged, even if it is not explicitly mentioned in the final communique of the upcoming summit in The Hague.
“The irreversible path of Ukraine into NATO is there, and it is my assumption that it is still there after the summit,” Rutte said at Chatham House in London.
Rutte’s comments follow reporting that this year’s summit communique, set for release after the June 24–25 meeting, may exclude references to Ukraine. This would mark a notable departure from previous gatherings, where Kyiv’s future in NATO took center stage.
The Kyiv IndependentAnna Fratsyvir