On October 9, 2023, at the age of 86, an outstanding Ukrainian international lawyer, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine, Doctor of Law, Honored Lawyer of Ukraine Volodymyr Andriiovych Vasylenko passed away.
Volodymyr Vasylenko graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Taras Shevchenko Kyiv State University, specialty “International Law”. In the 1970s and 1980s, he was a scientific consultant to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR on legal issues. In the spring of 1990, he created the first draft of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine and, as a consultant to the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR, participated in the preparation of the final version of the Declaration.
After Ukraine had restored its independence, Volodymyr Vasylenko had been building his diplomatic career abroad. Since 1992, he had been Ambassador to the Benelux countries, as well as Ukraine’s representative to the EU and NATO. In 1998–2002, he had served as Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom and concurrently — to Ireland.
In 1991–2009, Volodymyr Vasylenko repeatedly participated in the work of the UN General Assembly as an expert, adviser and member of the Ukrainian delegation, representing the country in the Third (human rights) and Sixth (legal) Committees.
In 2001, the UN General Assembly elected Volodymyr Vasylenko as a judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, where he served until January 2005. From 2006 to 2010, Volodymyr Andriyovych represented Ukraine in the UN Human Rights Council.
Volodymyr Andriiovych Vasylenko was awarded the Order of Merit 3rd class (1997), 2nd class (2001) and 1st class (2007), and the Order of Danylo Halytskyi (2009).
His cooperation with the Independent Analytical Center for Geopolitical Studies “Borysfen Intel” can be considered fruitful and active. It began in the middle of the last decade and left a lot of positive impressions on the members of our Center from the way Volodymyr Andriyovych determined the relevance of the topic, analyzed it and gave advice on conclusions, which were always accurate and appropriate. Thanks to his many years of experience, he was able to predict many events in the world political arena, which was later confirmed and made it possible to correctly perceive and react to them. We will always remember him as a wonderful person and a true personality for whom the independence of our state was above all!
The team of the “Borysfen Intel” Center expresses its condolences to the family and friends of Volodymyr Andriiovych Vasylenko.
Eternal memory…
