US foreign policy is “amoral” and based on threats, former US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch said on Wednesday.
Yovanovitch, who US President Donald Trump recalled in May last year from her post in Ukraine, spoke at Washington’s Georgetown University where she received a prize from its Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.
“Right now, the [US] State Department is in trouble,” she said. “Senior leaders lack policy vision, moral clarity and leadership skills.”
“To be blunt, an amoral, ‘keep ’em guessin’ foreign policy that substitutes threats, fear and confusion for trust cannot work over the long haul,” Yovanovitch said.
Trump last year criticized Yovanovitch in a telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, with the call leading to the US House of Representatives bringing impeachment articles against the US president. The House accused Trump of pressuring Ukraine to announce investigations, including into former US vice president Joe Biden.
In October last year, Yovanovitch testified to the US Congress that she was recalled due to “unfounded and false claims by people with clearly questionable motives.”
The 33-year-old said that she was subjected to a smear campaign orchestrated in part by Trump’s lawyer, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.
She also leveled criticism at US Department of State leadership, and by extension US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, accusing it of failing to push back against forces that “apparently hijacked our Ukraine policy” or to support her in the face of “dangerously wrong” attacks.
The US Senate acquitted Trump this month.
In her Georgetown address, Yovanovitch called for the department to develop a stronger relationship with Congress, to offer more training and flexibility for diplomats, and to take seriously the job of countering misinformation.
“Truth matters,” she said.
The Trainor Award she received is presented to “an outstanding American or foreigner for distinction in the conduct of diplomacy,” according to Georgetown.
Previous recipients include former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright and former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan.
The collapse of the Swiss Birch glacier serves as a chilling warning of the escalating dangers faced by communities worldwide living under the shadow of fragile ice, particularly in Asia, experts said. Footage of the collapse on Wednesday showed a huge cloud of ice and rubble hurtling down the mountainside into the hamlet of Blatten. Swiss Development Cooperation disaster risk reduction adviser Ali Neumann said that while the role of climate change in the case of Blatten “still needs to be investigated,” the wider impacts were clear on the cryosphere — the part of the world covered by frozen water. “Climate change and
Poland is set to hold a presidential runoff election today between two candidates offering starkly different visions for the country’s future. The winner would succeed Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is finishing his second and final term. The outcome would determine whether Poland embraces a nationalist populist trajectory or pivots more fully toward liberal, pro-European policies. An exit poll by Ipsos would be released when polls close today at 9pm local time, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Final results are expected tomorrow. Whoever wins can be expected to either help or hinder the
DENIAL: Musk said that the ‘New York Times was lying their ass off,’ after it reported he used so much drugs that he developed bladder problems Elon Musk on Saturday denied a report that he used ketamine and other drugs extensively last year on the US presidential campaign trail. The New York Times on Friday reported that the billionaire adviser to US President Donald Trump used so much ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, that he developed bladder problems. The newspaper said the world’s richest person also took ecstasy and mushrooms, and traveled with a pill box last year, adding that it was not known whether Musk also took drugs while heading the so-called US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after Trump took power in January. In a
IMBALANCE: In Vietnam, a preference for boys has caused the sex ratio at birth to be 112 boys for every 100 girls, despite penalties for gender selection The number of births in Japan last year fell for the ninth consecutive year, reaching another historical low of fewer than 700,000, government data showed yesterday, as Vietnam, which is also battling to reverse a declining birthrate, scrapped its long-standing policy of limiting families to two children. Fast-aging Japan welcomed 686,061 newborns last year — 41,227 fewer than in 2023, Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare data showed. It was the lowest figure since records began in 1899. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba has called the situation a “quiet emergency,” pledging family friendly measures such as more flexible working hours to
RSS