Piotr Lukasiewicz will become the new Polish ambassador to Ukraine on Sep. 1, Polish news outlet RMF reported on Aug. 24, citing Polish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pawel Wronski.
In March, the Polish Foreign Ministry announced that over 50 ambassadors would terminate their missions and that more than a dozen candidates submitted for approval by the previous ministry leadership would be withdrawn.
Lukasiewicz will replace Jaroslaw Guzy in Kyiv, appointed by the previous Polish government under Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and started his tenure in December 2023.
Lukasiewicz is a political scientist, diplomat, and Polish Armed Forces reserve colonel. From 1995 to 2006, he worked on state security and counterterrorism issues. Lukasiewicz also participated in stabilization missions in Iraq in 2004 and 2005.
In 2006, he was deputy military attache in Islamabad, and in January 2007, Lukasiewicz became a colonel and the army attache in Afghanistan. He retired in 2012 with the rank of colonel before becoming ambassador to Afghanistan. The Polish diplomat completed his mission on Deс. 31, 2014.
According to Polish law, the president appoints and dismisses ambassadors.
Earlier, the head of the presidential cabinet, Marcin Mastalerek, said that Polish President Andrzej Duda would not agree with the mass dismissal of ambassadors "without specific grounds and reasons."
In early June, Duda assessed that the staffing of diplomatic missions was carried out in "the worst possible way," adding that he would not sign the appointment of some ambassadors. Particularly, Duda does not agree with the candidates of Bogdan Klich and Ryszard Schnepf.
Poland is one of Ukraine's most steadfast supporters. According to the Kiel Institute, Poland has allocated 4.3 billion euros ($4.8 billion) to Ukraine.
Nate Ostiller
(Updated: )
