Who is Anjani Kumar, India’s newly appointed envoy to Kyiv?

The Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday announced the appointment of Anjani Kumar as India’s next Ambassador to Ukraine. Kumar, a 2003-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, is presently Joint Secretary at the ministry’s headquarters and is expected to take up the Kyiv posting shortly.

His schooling began at St Anthony’s School, Doranda, in Ranchi, where he completed matriculation between 1983 and 1988, later serving as Captain of the Green (Brahmaputra) House and Head Boy. He went on to St Xavier’s College in Ranchi before moving to Delhi, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in History from Shivaji College, Delhi University, between 1991 and 1994, followed by a Master’s in Sociology from the Delhi School of Economics from 1994 to 1996. He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 2003.

Kumar has held postings across four continents, including as third secretary in Madrid, second secretary in Mexico City, first secretary in Caracas, and counsellor at India’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York. His social media profile also lists earlier ambassadorial postings to Mali and Mauritania.

The appointment comes as India continues to navigate its diplomatic ties with both Kyiv and Moscow amid Ukraine’s prolonged conflict with Russia.