Zelensky Addresses Ambassadors: Weapons Needed in Ukraine, Not Warehouses

President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday, Aug. 3, addressed Ukrainian ambassadors from around the world gathered in Kyiv to receive the president’s new guidance and vision for Ukrainian diplomacy at this stage: namely, to get host countries to provide weapons ahead of a difficult winter. The speech was lengthy, and the list of demands extensive, but ultimately, they boiled down to two key messages.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Here’s what the messages were and why they are important, against the prior role of Ukrainian embassies. Old context of Ukrainian diplomacy To understand Zelensky’s speech, it is important to recognize that diplomacy has never been one of the Ukrainian state’s strongest institutions. Even during Volodymyr Zelensky’s presidency, ambassadorial appointments have often been viewed as a form of “honorable retirement.” For example, former Finance Minister Oksana Markarova, former Social Policy Minister Yulia Sokolovska, and former Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin all received ambassadorial appointments after leaving their previous positions. Kostin was appointed ambassador to the Netherlands; his predecessor, Iryna Venediktova, became ambassador to Switzerland in the autumn of 2022, with concurrent accreditation to Liechtenstein. These appointments were criticized because many of those selected were not professional or career diplomats. One of the most controversial examples was Andriy Taran, appointed ambassador to Slovenia in the spring of 2022. The former defense minister had been dismissed in the autumn of 2021 amid a scandal over failed defense procurement. Little became known about his work in Slovenia, and he left the post in 2024. Other Topics of Interest What Zelensky’s 40-Day Oil Campaign Achieved – and What It Didn’t Russia’s strategic depth – the assumption that its refineries, its budget, and its own annexed peninsula sat safely behind the front line – no longer holds. Another appointment that generated considerable controversy was that of Olesya Ilashchuk as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Bulgaria at the end of 2022. Before her appointment, Ilashchuk had no diplomatic experience and had spent four years practicing Gestalt therapy in Kyiv. Questions were also raised about the appointment of former Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhny as ambassador to the United Kingdom, where he represents Ukraine in the capital of one of its most important allies. Although Zaluzhny enjoys enormous authority both in Ukraine and abroad, he likewise has no diplomatic background. “Every ambassador must bring weapons to Ukraine” Now Zelensky has delivered this address to Ukraine’s ambassadors, issuing new marching orders with a concrete objective to “bring weapons to Ukraine.” That came as something of a surprise, particularly given that the diplomatic service had long received relatively little attention from the country’s leadership. Instead, emphasis has been placed on the president’s personal diplomacy, which proved effective up to a point, and on meetings of defense leaders, particularly the Ramstein-format summits. Now, however, there is an apparent need to mobilize even those resources that previously received less priority. The president struck a determined and demanding tone throughout his address. The word “result” appears more than 30 times in the speech. That reflects Zelensky’s broader leadership style, in which delivering tangible results takes precedence above all else. The same approach shaped the formation of the new Cabinet. According to Kyiv Post sources, the president was highly satisfied with the effective management demonstrated by Naftogaz chief Serhii Koretskyi during last winter and believes that, as a technocrat, he will be able to deliver stronger results next winter – which could prove even more difficult given Ukraine’s anticipated shortage of interceptors capable of countering Russian ballistic missiles. Zelensky made it clear to ambassadors how their performance would be judged: by the amount of military assistance their host countries provide. The president told the assembled diplomats: “The quality of an embassy’s work must be measured by the amount of weapons Ukraine receives, the financial support secured for Ukraine, the political decisions achieved, and the concrete steps taken to put pressure on the enemy. This is the main framework. “A Ukrainian ambassador must know how many air defense missiles are available in the country, where they serve, and how to ensure those missiles are not sitting in warehouses somewhere but are in our launchers here in Ukraine... “Missiles for every system I have repeatedly spoken about. Weapons for our combat aviation. Everything our drones need – this is your work and our shared daily responsibility. Every ambassador must bring weapons to Ukraine.” However, while diplomatic efforts influence arms deliveries, such supplies are generally determined by cooperation between defense ministries and the defense industry. Ukraine is currently facing serious challenges in this area as a result of the political crisis triggered by the government reshuffle and the dismissal of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. At present, Ukraine has no fully appointed defense minister – only an acting minister without the full authority of the office. It also has no permanent head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and no fully appointed foreign minister, with Andrii Sybiha likewise serving in an acting capacity. This has created additional difficulties, compounded by the appointment of a new commander-in-chief following Fedorov’s dismissal amid mass protests. Many processes within the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff are being reset and adapted to the new leadership, slowing down some key operations. Can diplomacy compensate for these challenges, at least temporarily? Will Zelensky be satisfied with the results he expects from ambassadors by winter, given that so much depends on factors beyond diplomacy itself? Notably, the president did not mention Fedorov’s dismissal or the mass protests that followed. This omission is significant, as it is one of the issues frequently raised by Ukraine’s international partners. Winter will be difficult – officials are no longer hiding that One of the more positive aspects of the speech was that the president effectively acknowledged that the coming winter will be difficult. He did not attempt to assess how it might compare with the previous winter. Nevertheless, the repeated references to winter, together with the appointments of Ihor Klymenko as Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council and Serhii Koretskyi as head of government specifically to prepare for the season, spoke louder than any forecast. Zelensky did make a bit of his own prognosis in his speech: “This year, winter is once again an obvious priority for everyone. This year, your task is to provide the maximum possible support on the international track, in cooperation with our partners, for the government of Ukraine. “Right now, we cannot predict with complete certainty when all of our diplomatic efforts will produce results, when Ukraine’s long-range sanctions against Russia, our deep strikes, and all of our partners’ sanctions will generate enough pressure that Russia has no alternative but peace. “We will do everything possible to make that happen. We will strive to achieve it before winter, this autumn. “But we clearly understand whom we are dealing with, and that Putin intends to prolong this war. He is preparing a new mobilization campaign and new strikes.” Here diplomacy can indeed play a much greater role, because preparing civilians and critical infrastructure for winter involves a far broader range of actors – sister cities, humanitarian and religious organizations, private businesses, and others. These are precisely the partners that fall within the diplomats’ sphere of responsibility and, indeed, constitute the core of their work. The key question, therefore, is whether Ukraine’s diplomatic corps can truly work on multiple fronts simultaneously: coordinating initiatives between Ukrainian communities and counterparts in their host countries, engaging local businesses and humanitarian organizations, while also supporting initiatives launched from Ukraine to establish partnerships with foreign organizations. So far, this work has been uneven and largely dependent on the level of activity in each individual country. International partners implementing numerous reconstruction projects in Ukraine have told Kyiv Post that they have been particularly satisfied with the work of Ukrainian diplomatic missions in Germany, Poland, Lithuania, and, to some extent, Türkiye. But, even when embassies provide support, international partners may still encounter resistance or passivity from institutions inside Ukraine. For example, Lithuanian organizations involved in reconstruction and recovery projects told Kyiv Post they had faced significant passivity from the previous leadership of Ukraine’s Ministry of Education. For them, entering Ukraine proved easier than carrying out projects once they were already operating in the country. What does it mean? That means diplomatic efforts alone will not be enough. What is needed is coordinated action across the entire machinery of the Ukrainian state, within the government and beyond.