Marie Louise Yovanovitch (born 1958)[1] is a member of the Senior United States Foreign Service who served as the 9th United States Ambassador to Ukraine. She was nominated to the post on May 18, 2016, to replace Geoff Pyatt;[2][3] was sworn in on August 18, 2016;[4] and was recalled as of May 20, 2019.[5] She is currently a diplomat in residence at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University.[6][7]
Yovanovitch was the United States Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan from November 20, 2004, to February 4, 2008, and the United States Ambassador to Armenia from August 1, 2008, to June 3, 2011.[8]
Marie Yovanovitch is the daughter of Michel Yovanovitch and Nadia (Theokritoff) Yovanovitch.[9] She was born in Canada, moved to Connecticut when she was three, and became a naturalized American citizen at age eighteen. She grew up speaking Russian.[6]
Yovanovitch is a graduate of Kent School, a private boarding school in Connecticut, and Princeton University, where she earned a B.A. in History and Russian Studies in 1980. She studied at the Pushkin Institute (1980) and was awarded an M.S. from the National Defense University National War College in 2001.[10]
Yovanovitch joined the U.S. foreign service in 1986. Her first foreign assignment, in Ottawa, was followed by overseas assignments including Moscow, London, and Mogadishu.[10] From May 1998 to May 2000 she served as the Deputy Director of the Russian Desk in the U.S. Department of State.
From August 2001 to June 2004, as a career member of the senior foreign service, she was the Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, Ukraine.[11] From August 2004 to May 2005 she was the Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs.
Yovanovitch was nominated on June 3, 2005 to serve as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Kyrgyz Republic, and confirmed by the United States Senate on June 30, 2005. She was the United States Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan from November 20, 2004, to February 4, 2008, and the United States Ambassador to Armenia from August 1, 2008, to June 3, 2011.
Yovanovitch was nominated to be the ambassador to Ukraine on May 18, 2016, to replace Geoff Pyatt, and was sworn in on August 18, 2016.[2][3][4]
In May 2019, the Trump administration recalled Yovanovitch as ambassador to Ukraine.[12] Although she had reportedly earned respect from the national security community for her efforts to encourage Ukraine to tackle corruption, she had been criticized by some conservative media outlets, and by President Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.[6][13] However, the State Department declared some of the allegations by Yuri Lutsenko to be "an outright fabrication."[14]
According to unnamed sources, Yovanovitch was recalled for undermining and obstructing Trump's efforts to persuade Ukraine to investigate former vice-president and 2020 U.S. presidential election candidate Joe Biden.[15]