Zelensky on Monday named former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland as his economic adviser amid a sweeping political reshuffle in Kyiv.
“Chrystia is highly skilled in these matters and has extensive experience in attracting investment and implementing economic transformations,” Zelensky wrote.
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Freeland’s appointment ranks among the highest-profile arrivals of a former Western official into Kyiv’s governance, though others have held even more senior roles.
Here’s a brief look at her background and those who came before her.
Who’s Chrystia Freeland?
Freeland, a former journalist and veteran Canadian lawmaker, was central to Ottawa’s economic and foreign policy for nearly a decade.
She began her career reporting from Eastern Europe, including Ukraine and Russia, in the 1990s and 2000s, before entering politics in the 2010s. She later served as minister of international trade, foreign affairs and finance, and as Canada’s deputy prime minister from 2019 to 2024 under Justin Trudeau.
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She played a key role in negotiating major trade deals with Europe and the US – experience likely behind her appointment as Kyiv seeks to balance a diplomatic tightrope with Washington.
Born to a Ukrainian mother, Chrystia Freeland has been a vocal supporter for Ukraine among Western politicians since Russia’s 2022 invasion, backing sanctions on Moscow and financial assistance for Kyiv. After leaving cabinet, she was appointed Canada’s special representative for Ukraine’s reconstruction, playing a role in Ukraine’s international finance, diplomacy and postwar planning.
Freeland’s appointment coincided with a major political reshuffle in Kyiv, including the intelligence chief becoming Zelensky’s chief of staff, the deputy foreign minister becoming the former’s deputy, the digital minister shifting to defense, and the security chief resigning.
But Freeland is not the first foreign official becoming an advisor in Ukraine – nor is she the first Canadian.
Roman Waschuk
Roman Waschuk was a former Canadian ambassador to Ukraine who later became a business ombudsman for Kyiv.
Like Freeland, Waschuk is of Ukrainian heritage, with his family having immigrated to Canada after WWII. Waschuk began his diplomatic career in 1987, with postings in Kyiv, Berlin, and Ottawa at Global Affairs Canada. He served as Canada’s ambassador to Ukraine from 2014 to 2019, and previously as ambassador to Serbia, North Macedonia, and Montenegro from 2011 to 2014.
Appointed in late 2021 as an ombudsman for Ukraine’s Business Ombudsman Council – an independent advisory body under the Cabinet of Ministers – Waschuk’s role is to help protect companies from unfair government treatment and make recommendations on improving the business environment; the position is primarily advisory, and he is not considered a government official.
Natalie Jaresko
Natalie Jaresko is a former US State Department official who later served as Ukraine’s finance minister between 2014 and 2016.
Jaresko, also born into the Ukrainian diaspora, held several economic roles at the US State Department from 1989 to 1992 and served as Chief of the Economic Section at the US Embassy in Ukraine from 1992 to 1995, according to the World Bank. She later co-founded and led Horizon Capital, a fund manager overseeing more than $600 million in assets.
She was granted Ukrainian citizenship upon becoming the finance minister.
“I’ve always been a Ukrainian. I’m a Ukrainian citizen now, that’s a difference, but I have worked and lived in this country – this is my home – for 23 years,” she said at the time, according to Business Insider.
“Like any minister right now, I feel the need to prove my credentials as a reformer, but I don’t think it makes a difference that I was previously an American citizen.”
But Jaresko is far from being the highest-ranking former foreign official to hold a government position in Ukraine.
Mikheil Saakashvili
Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili became the governor of Ukraine’s Odesa region after leaving office.
Saakashvili served as Georgia’s third president for two consecutive terms from 2004 to 2013, with a brief break from November 2007 to January 2008. During his tenure, he championed Georgia’s integration with the West, actively seeking EU and NATO membership. In 2008, Russia invaded Georgia while he was in office.
In 2014, following Ukraine’s Euromaidan Revolution, Saakashvili was appointed governor of the Odesa region by then-President Petro Poroshenko. The revocation of his Ukrainian citizenship in 2017, also by Poroshenko, came without any official explanation, with Saakashvili alleging political prosecution.
Saakashvili is believed to have returned to Georgia in 2021, where he faced corruption charges he denied, calling them politically motivated. He was arrested by the pro-Moscow Georgian Dream government and remains in prison.
Kateryna Yuschenko
Kateryna Yuschenko, Ukraine’s former first lady between 2005 and 2010, was a former US official.
While never holding official posts in Ukraine, she has been married to former President Viktor Yuschenko – the first Ukrainian president to pursue Western integration as a central political identity – since 1998. Like most on the list, she was born in the US to Ukrainian parents.
After her tenure at the US State Department, she moved to Kyiv and co-founded the US-Ukraine Foundation, a nonprofit promoting democratic development and free-market reforms, according to Kyiv Post’s 2010 report. While advising Ukraine’s central bank through her role at KPMG, she met its then-head, Viktor Yushchenko.
Viktor Yushchenko later ran for president and became the central figure of Ukraine’s Orange Revolution between 2004 and 2005, winning a re-run of the election after widespread allegations of fraud in the original vote that had favored his opponent, then-Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. He survived a dioxin poisoning attempt believed to be linked to Moscow and, during his presidency, advocated for Ukraine’s NATO membership.
Read Viktor Yushchenko’s recent op-ed for Kyiv Post on Russia’s war in Ukraine here.
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