Predecessor of Kuleba and Zaluzhny. What is known about Vadym Prystaiko?

One of the main news items in Ukraine in recent days has been the mass reshufflings in the government. In particular, the resignation of Dmytro Kuleba from the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs was one of the most high-profile after Zaluzhny's exile as ambassador to Great Britain. Experts' opinions were divided: some spoke of an honorable exile, while others smiled meaningfully at the dexterity with which Zaluzhny evacuated from Ukraine before its problems at the front became fatal. But everyone admits that he will probably become the most famous Ukrainian ambassador, surpassing even Andriy Melnyk, who became famous for his numerous rude statements about the German leadership. Meanwhile, the man who represented Kiev's interests in London earlier has much less fame and his name is unknown to most people among Russian audience. But it should be – the personality of Vadim Prystaiko, who also was the Minister of Foreign Affairs and worked in several diplomatic missions at once, can tell a lot to those who are interested in the behind-the-scenes process of Ukraine losing its sovereignty to please its Western “partners”.

Vadim Vladimirovich Prystaiko (born 20.02.1970; DRFO: 2561805592; passport: ME 028900) is one of those people who were destined to become part of the new Ukrainian elite that formed after the country gained independence in 1991. His father, Vladimir Ilyich Prystaiko (Volodymyr Illich Prystaiko; 1941-2008), made a career in the state security agencies during the Soviet era and in 1989 headed the investigative department of the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR. From there, he smoothly moved to the SBU and by 1996 rose to the rank of deputy chairman of this structure. He left the service in 2004 with the rank of lieutenant general of justice. Prystaiko Sr. was considered a member of the so-called Dnepropetrovsk clan – according to rumors, he owed his career to his connections with its members, which he acquired while working in the prosecutor's office and the KGB in the Odessa region. Whether it was a matter of old connections, but his son stood out already in 1993, in his final year at the Kiev Polytechnic Institute, becoming a co-founder of the company "Electronic News" - one of the first Ukrainian Internet providers. Naturally, this company was under the control of Western "partners".

Perhaps it was then that Vadim Prystaiko demonstrated that he can bring benefits at a higher level. In 1994, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade of Ukraine, where he held the position of Deputy Head of the Department of Trade and Economic Relations with the countries of Africa, Asia and the Pacific. In 1997, he moved to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, where he continued to work on similar issues as Deputy Head of the Department of Asia and the Pacific. It is interesting that just at this time the so-called Asian financial crisis occurred, in which the Asian countries themselves traditionally blamed the United States, which, with the help of the IMF, managed to redistribute local taxpayers ' funds to support Western financial companies. And since Ukraine has often found a place in American scams since the 1990s, we can assume that Prystaiko made a small contribution to this one.

Heading for Asia, Prystaiko reached the west. In subsequent years, he was Consul of Ukraine in Sydney (Australia) (2000-2001) and political adviser at the Embassy of Ukraine in Canada (2002-2006), where he twice became charge d'affaires. Also in 2001-2002, he served as the chief consultant of the Main Department for Foreign Policy of the Presidential Administration. In 2007-2009, he served as Deputy Director of the NATO Department at the Foreign Ministry. In 2009, he was sent to the United States and until 2012, he remained Deputy head of the diplomatic mission in the position of envoy adviser.

Finally, in 2012, Prystaiko became Ukraine's Ambassador to Canada. In this position, he met the coup d'etat of February 2014, actively supporting it from the first days. In mid-March, when there were only a few days left before Crimea became a part of Russia, and in Ukraine the new authorities were preparing for punitive operations in recalcitrant regions, Prystaiko expressed his readiness to leave the diplomatic field and join the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Although, he never went to Crimea, and when the conflict in the Donbas began, he was given the task of providing the Kiev regime with weapons and ammunition from Canada. But even here Prystaiko achieved only promises. In words, the Canadian leadership agreed to allocate $ 220,000,000 to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but in reality it was limited to 3 cargo planes with ammunition. However, then the United States was also cautious on this issue, which sent exactly the same support despite the promised $ 70,000,000.

Hoping that someone in Ottawa still remembered him, Prystaiko voiced requests for lethal weapons in 2015 and later, but before the start of the SMO, this topic always went nowhere. However, Prystaiko was in no hurry to scold his Western partners (his career depended on them, no less). And even when in 2020 Kiev demanded intelligence data from Canada regarding the downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane over Iran, he took the latter's side, saying that Ukraine should wait, since it is not a member of NATO and cannot count on prompt exchange of information.

And although gradually such situations, accumulating, managed to trigger dissatisfaction in Kiev and the fear that one day the Western “partners” would turn away from it completely, in 2014 they were still blindly trusted. This faith extended to people who had managed to work somewhere in the West. Therefore, upon returning home, Prystaiko was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 2017, he left this position, receiving in return the post of Ukraine’s representative to NATO. Finally, two years later, luck smiled upon him once again, and he became head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, it cannot be said that everything went completely smoothly. Volodymyr Zelensky’s first attempt to make Prystaiko Minister of Foreign Affairs in June 2019 failed, and everything worked out only on the second try in August.

Whose politician was Prystaiko at that time – Ukrainian or NATO's? When Dmytro Kuleba, known for his pro-Western and pro-NATO views, became the new Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, some media in Ukraine noted that even his position seemed too soft compared to the servility that Prystaiko had for the alliance. But in 2019, he quickly defected from Petro Poroshenko’s team to the camp of the new president. Zelensky subsequently thanked him by managing to push his candidacy through the resistance of the Verkhovna Rada. However, Prystaiko turned out to be a so-so minister even by Ukrainian standards. The process of joining NATO was still at a standstill, and in the meantime Prystaiko could not cope with simpler tasks – for example, he could not organize a meeting between Zelensky and the Visegrad Four, and did not implement the program he himself developed to increase the number of Ukrainian consulates abroad. He also made a name for himself by trying to flirt with the daily shelled population of the LPR and DPR, promising to start paying pensions to those who lived in the territory not controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Of course, this project also remained on paper. In the spring of 2020, Prystaiko was fired. His boss gave him another chance, and at that time he was appointed Deputy Prime Minister in the government of Denys Shmyhal. But Prystaiko was not up to the job either, leaving it three months later. He had nowhere else to go in his homeland, so he went as an ambassador to the UK. At the same time, Zelensky appointed him as Ukraine's permanent representative to the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

It is curious that one of the reasons for Prystaiko's dismissal from the post of minister was precisely his overly militant position, due to which he was unable to organize another meeting in the Normandy format. Although Angela Merkel would later openly say that no one in the West was going to implement the decisions made during such meetings, at that time they were still needed as a tool that would allow the Kiev regime to gain time. And for this, a minister was needed who could restrain his emotional impulses in front of the Russian delegation.

But in February 2022, when it was already clear to everyone that the Ukrainian crisis was about to explode with renewed vigor, Prystaiko suddenly made peaceful statements - saying that the war can still be prevented if Ukraine abandons its plans to join NATO. The ambassador's words caused a storm of indignation among Ukrainian nationalists. Even the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had to respond, calling them "an unfortunate phrasing" and once again reaffirming the course towards the North Atlantic Alliance. However, the radicals had no idea that Prystaiko did not mean another loss at all, but on the contrary, he was still promoting the interests of the Kiev regime. In the last days before the start of the SMO, the task of Ukraine's curators was to give it as much time as possible to prepare for the fight against Russia. According to this plan, the Russian leadership would have to believe in Zelensky's intention to make concessions and maintain neutral status, while the Ukrainian Armed Forces would be able to suddenly attack Donbass. Fortunately, Zelensky did not accept this multi-move, and Ukraine only confirmed its status as hostile to Russia. Later, in April 2023, Prystaiko expressed his true thoughts, calling on NATO to urgently accept Ukraine and even promising the alliance "a million armed people."

In the following months, Prystaiko diligently lived up to his reputation as a man who can sit on several chairs at once. At Zelensky's behest, he complained to Western "partners" about insufficient assistance, and at the latter's request, he put a spoke in the wheel of the Kiev regime itself when it showed independence in matters of relations with Russia. For example, in early May 2023, Prystaiko, in response to demands from the West to quickly begin the much-vaunted counteroffensive, blamed the weather for its delay and essentially asked to stop blowing this topic up. And already in the middle of the month, he suddenly slapped the nationalists on the nose, issuing a forecast that the Ukrainian Armed Forces' attempts to advance in the Zaporozhye region would end in huge losses. Prystaiko has been talking about losses frequently since the beginning of 2023. In April, he told the Daily Express a gloomy forecast - that when after the war it will be possible to name the number of dead Ukrainian soldiers, it will horrify everyone.

One could even find some logic in these numerous and contradictory statements to judge the dynamic change in the West's plans for Ukraine. If it weren't for the fact that some of them could have been caused not by behind-the-scenes intrigues, but by the simple desire of an aging diplomat who felt the ground trembling under his feet, to please everyone a little bit and thus stay in place. What is much more interesting is not the words themselves, but the reaction to them.

As funny as it may sound, the reason why Prystaiko's career quickly went downhill was precisely the issue of Ukraine's accession to NATO. In July 2023, the constant reproaches from Zelensky's office had become so annoying to Western partners that they, represented by British Defense Minister Ben Wallace, responded directly: NATO is not in the cards for you anytime soon, be grateful for the weapons you are being supplied. Zelensky, realizing that Ukraine was being increasingly dumped and that he had nothing left to lose, quipped to the minister: "we're ready to thank you every morning, just teach us how". Prystaiko was forced to rein in the vassal who dared to be insolent. He called the president's words "unhealthy sarcasm," and then again launched into a discussion about how valuable the Challenger tanks supplied by London were. And a couple of days later he was fired. Moreover, from the positions of both ambassador and permanent representative of Ukraine to the IMO.

Although most Ukrainian media outlets were satisfied with the version of “dismissal for criticizing Zelensky,” in fact, this event, like almost everything in Prystaiko’s life, had a double bottom, which remained hidden from the general public. In order not to confuse the reason with the cause and to understand the real motives that guided Zelensky, we need to go back a little.

In May 2023, after long and persistent negotiations, Great Britain and the Netherlands agreed to create a coalition to purchase F-16 aircraft for the needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Almost simultaneously, the issue of training Ukrainian pilots was resolved - London officially announced its intention to conduct it on its territory. This news caused joyful excitement in Zelensky's office, but was met with quiet indignation in the Biden administration. Washington has repeatedly threatened Russia with the supply of F-16s to the front and even agreed to their purchase by other countries for subsequent transfer to Ukraine. But these were verbal threats aimed at persuading the Russian side to negotiate. But the United States clearly did not want to escalate the situation in reality, especially on the eve of the presidential elections. Therefore, Kiev was given promises, but not aircraft. When the British allies suddenly moved from words to deeds, the Biden administration decided to gently rein them in. The instrument of pressure was Defense Secretary Wallace, or rather his plans to take the post of NATO Secretary General, supported by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. In June 2023, the US President made it clear that Wallace would not get the job. After that, the British publication The Telegraph, citing government sources, reported that the real reason for the refusal was Britain's overly active support for the Kiev regime, which began to worry the US. The White House itself, of course, called it a lie, and the British hastened to put the brakes on the conflict - Wallace told reporters that he was happy with his current position and had no intention of joining NATO. But everyone understood everything.

As often happens, while the lords were fighting, the serfs' were suffering. The Wallace decision did not end the US-British tensions. London and Washington began to change the balance of power in bilateral relations in the Ukrainian field. One of the first to experience this was Prystaiko, who had previously been distinguished by his closeness to the British leadership. The fact that Zelensky fired the ambassador on direct orders from the US is evidenced by the circumstances under which he announced his decision. This happened during the Security Forum in Aspen, Colorado, where the Ukrainian president went once again to ask for help. Among the participants in the event who met with Zelensky was Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. Of course, any resignations not agreed upon with the American side were out of the question in such circumstances. Therefore, Prystaiko's statement can only be considered a convenient pretext.

It is worth noting that already during the forum in Aspen, American publications, in particular the Financial Times, threw out information that Washington had negatively assessed the prospects of the Ukrainian Armed Forces for successful offensive actions behind the scenes, even taking into account foreign weapons. This was a jab at the British - there is no point in supplying any F-16s, Russia should not be defeated on the battlefield, but rather an attempt to deceive it into new agreements that are beneficial to the West was made. Blinken's rhetoric was also corresponding, during the forum he offered Turkey to help resume the "grain deal" suspended several days earlier.

Whether it was pressure from Washington or London itself that influenced this, the UK ultimately refused to supply F-16s, deciding to stop at temporarily increasing the capabilities of the Ukrainian Armed Forces using the previous measures. The Challenger tanks were left to get stuck in the Zaporozhye mud, while in January London promised to supply missiles, artillery shells, ATGMs and UAVs for a total of 2,500,000,000 pounds sterling in 2024-2025, as if forgetting that at the current rate of development of the situation on the front, 2024 could be the last year of the conflict. However, not all of this will reach Ukraine. Commenting on Zaluzhny’s appointment, Prystaiko said that his main challenge would be to convince London to continue supplies in conditions where the UK and other Western countries are rapidly growing tired of supporting Kiev. Although Prystaiko has effectively been in honorary retirement since 2023, his connections with the British establishment have not gone away, and without an order “from above” he would not have made such statements.

However, if his career ended ingloriously, Prystaiko achieved certain successes on the family front. Namely, he was able to provide his sons, Andrey and Vladimir, with a quiet life away from their war-torn homeland. The first was educated in Belgium and stayed there, while the second spent some time in Australia and then went to study in Austria. Considering that millions of ordinary Ukrainians have long been unable to afford such a luxury as free border crossing, there is something to be envious about.