Olexander Scherba

Olexander Scherba is a Ukrainian diplomat and author who worked as Ambassador of Ukraine to Austria in 2014–2021. A native of Kyiv, he graduated from Kyiv Shevchenko University in 1993 (German and English philology) and defended his PhD dissertation in 2001. His diplomatic career included various positions both in Ukraine and across the world: Bonn, Berlin, Washington and Vienna. He was a speechwriter to many foreign ministers and presidents of Ukraine. In September 2014, he authored Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's widely acclaimed address to the US Congress. On 22 November 2004, the next day after the falsified presidential elections, he authored a statement of protest against the falsification of presidential elections in Ukraine. Many other diplomats co-signed the statement in what became the Orange Revolution. Since 2008, he has contributed as a columnist to Ukraine's central weekly newspaper Dzerkalo Tyzhnia. His book Vaccination Against Darkness was published in Ukrainian in 2020. Ukraine's PEN Club included it in the year's top 15 books in the "essays" category. His next book Ukraine vs. Darkness. Undiplomatic Thoughts was published in English by the German publishing house Ibidem Press on 30 April 2021. He currently serves as ambassador-at-large (in charge of strategic communications) at Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and maintains one of Ukraine's leading English-language X (formerly Twitter) accounts @olex_scherba.