The Foreign Service Journal, May 2022

18 MAY 2022 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Leadership Summit in December. “When we have more diversity—of thought, of expertise, of lived experience—at the table, our policies and initiatives are stronger, smarter and more creative.” AFSA’s upcoming interview with Aber- crombie-Winstanley will be published in the June FSJ . Limited Support for Local Staff in Ukraine A letter written by Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried and obtained by Foreign Policy urged eligible local staff working for the U.S. embassy in Ukraine to apply for Special Immigrant Visas and warned that the State Department may be constrained in providing long- term support. “If the crisis persists, there may come a time when we will have to make dif- ficult decisions about our operations and your employment status—but we are not there yet,” Donfried wrote to the local Ukrainian embassy staff in mid-March. “What we can guarantee is that we will keep you informed every step of the way to give you enough time to make decisions about what’s best for your personal situation.” Only Ukrainians who worked for the U.S. government for more than 15 years are eligible to apply for SIVs. Before the embassy evacuated to Lviv ahead of the Russian invasion in February, approxi- mately 600 Ukrainians worked at the mission. Donfried’s letter suggested that nearly half of those employees would be eligible to relocate permanently to the U.S. with SIVs, leaving an uncertain fate for the remaining 300. According to several U.S. diplomats in contact with Ukrainian embassy staff, some employees fled to western Ukraine, while others stayed and volun- teered to fight the Russian invasion with the Ukrainian defense forces. Still others remain trapped in Kyiv or have family trapped there. On March 11, locally employed staff in Kyiv sent a letter to the State Department saying they felt abandoned by Washing- ton and feared the State Department was reneging on promises to provide them with long-term financial assistance. AFSA President Eric Rubin told For- eign Policy in a March 16 article that the State Department needs to do more. “It is about morality and decency, but it’s also about whether anyone would want to work for us again overseas if we don’t show that we would do everything we can for them in a situation like this,” Rubin said. “There are still legitimate reasons to ask why we did not help them evacuate Kyiv when we have dozens of aban- doned embassy vehicles with full gas tanks in the courtyard of our embassy that’s padlocked in Kyiv,” Rubin said. “All the bureaucratic reasons for not doing that do not strike me as sufficient or appropriate.” n This edition of Talking Points was compiled by Julia Wohlers. Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley delivers remarks on being named Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer in April 2021. U.S.DEPARTMENTOFSTATE AFSPA afspa.org/disability afspa.org/dental Chambers Theory ChambersTheory.com Clements Worldwide Clements.com/ MissionsAbroad Federal Employee Defense Services fedsprotection.com McEnearney & Associates McEnearneyPM.com Promax Management PromaxManagement.com Property Specialists, Inc. PropertySpecialistsinc.com Richey Property Management RicheyPM.com/foreignservice Senior Living Foundation slfoundation.org WJD Management wjdpm.com