# Sergiy Korsunsky

Sergiy Korsunsky (born August 10, 1962) is a Ukrainian diplomat. He previously served as Chargé d'affaires of Ukraine to the United States during 2005 and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Turkey (2008-2016). Director of the Hennadii Udovenko Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine in 2017-2020.
He was ambassador of Ukraine to Japan from April 2020 to December 2024.

## Education

Sergiy Korsunsky graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in 1984, faculty for Mathematics and Mechanics. Doctor of Science (Physics and Mathematics).
In 1995, he undertook a professional training course at the Institute for International Relations, Kyiv State University

## Career

1984 — 1988 — Researcher with the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
1988 — 1991 — Researcher-Consultant, Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
1991 — 1994 — Director-General of the Department for State Scientific and Technological Programs at the State Committee on Science and Technologies of Ukraine
1994 — 1995 — Secretary of the first class of the Ukraine’s National Commission for UNESCO
1995 — 1998 — Counsellor for Economy, Science and Technologies, Embassy of Ukraine to the State of Israel
1998 — 2000 — Deputy Head of the Department for Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
2000 — 2006 — Counsellor, Minister Counsellor of the Embassy of Ukraine, Washington, D.C., in 2005 charge d' Affairs a.i. of Ukraine to the United States.
2006 — 2008 — Head of the Department for Economic Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
July 2008 — up to June 18, 2016 — Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Republic of Turkey
October 2017 – April 2020 - Director, Hennadii Udovenko Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine
14.04.2020 - 21.12.2024 - Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Japan

## Controversies

In April 2022, he retweeted a hate speech post in which a Japanese far-right Twitter user referred to South Korea as an aggressor such as Russia, and later came under heavy criticism from Koreans.
On September 3, 2024, Korsunsky visited the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo "to pay his respects to those who lost their lives in service to their country". The Yasukuni Shrine is politically controversial because it also enshrines wartime leaders executed as Class A war criminals from the Pacific War such as Hideki Tojo. The visit sparked online controversies and the initial post by Ukrainian embassy in Japan on Twitter was deleted by Sep.5.

## Academic affiliations

Visiting professor Kobe Gakuin University, Japan
Honorary professor Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, Ukraine

## Author publications

Author of more than 350 academic papers and other publications including 8 books, among them "Nonlinear waves in dispersive and dissipative systems with coupled fields" (Addison, Wesley. Longman, 1997), “Technology Transfer in the United States” (Kyiv, 2005), “Energy Diplomacy” (Kyiv, 2008), "Foreign Policy in Times of Transformations: how not to be left on the sidelines of history"(Kharkiv, 2020), How to build relations with Asian countries: economy, diplomacy, cultural peculiarities (Kharkiv, 2021), How nations reborn: experience of East Asia (Kharkiv, 2023).
Author of 10 books of fiction published in 2010-2019 under the pen-name Sergey Vladich (in Russian), as hobby