Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he asked Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin to stay in his job but the latter still decided to quit.
“Klimkin is a professional diplomat. By the way, I proposed to him that he stay with the team, because we are in a complicated international situation, and he knows this. But he decided to engage in politics,” Zelenskiy said in a video interview on Wednesday morning.
During Zelensky’s recent visit to the NATO headquarters, he was accompanied by Deputy Foreign Minister for European Integration Olena Zerkal.
The delegation also included National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Danyliuk, Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Ivanna Klympush-Tsyntsadze, deputy presidential chief of staff Vadym Prystaiko, and Ukraine’s Permanent Representative to the EU Mykola Tochytsky.
Klimkin said on May 17 that he had tendered his resignation as Ukrainian foreign minister. He said he had informed Zelenskiy of his decision beforehand.
Klimkin was appointed foreign minister in 2014.
