William B. Taylor served as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009 during the George W. Bush and Barack Obama presidencies. He’s been vice president, Europe and Russia at the U.S. Institute of Peace since 2015. It’s a federal institution tasked with promoting conflict resolution and prevention worldwide.
Ambassador Taylor returned to Ukraine in 2019 to serve as Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv after President Donald Trump fired the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch. He remained in that role until early January of 2020.
During the Arab Spring, Ambassador Taylor oversaw U.S. assistance and support to Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria. He also served in Jerusalem as the U.S. government's representative to the Mideast Quartet - and in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2002 and in Baghdad, Iraq in 2004.
Ambassador Taylor was in town to give a talk for the Naples Council on World Affairs titled "600-plus Days of Battle with Volodymyr and Vladimir." We sat down with him at his hotel for a conversation about what’s happening in Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February of 2022, among other things. WGCU-FM will broadcast Ambassador Taylor's talk on Sunday, December 31 at 8pm.
You can hear the rest of the conversation below.
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