The U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations will conduct a hearing on Aug. 5 to consider President Donald J. Trump’s nomination of retired Lt. General Keith W. Dayton as ambassador to Ukraine.

Dayton will be the third candidate screened by the committee in a 9 a.m. Washington/4 p.m. hearing to be broadcast live. The committee will also consider the nomination of Julie D. Fisher as U.S. ambassador to Belarus.

Ukraine has not had an ambassador from the United States since Trump fired Marie L. Yovanovitch in May 2019..."........".....She retired in January after 35 years in the U. S. Foreign Service.

Since Yovanovitch’s departure, American interests have been served by two charge d’affaires — William B. Taylor, the ambassador in Ukraine from 2006– 2009, and Kristina Kvien, who took over as head of the mission after Taylor left in January 2020.

In the picture: Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Keith W. Dayton, director of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, talks about the German-American partnership at the Loisach Group side event on Feb. 17, 2019 at the Munich Security Conference 2019. Photo by U.S. Army

Trump announced on May 1, 2020, his nomination as Dayton. Dayton retired in 2010 from the U. S. Army with the rank of lieutenant general and served as the director of the George C. Marshall Center in Garmisch, Germany.  The Politico news organization first reported in December the prospect of Dayton’s candidacy.

In 2018, Dayton called Ukraine “a priority country” for the United States and pledged to help with military advice. “We have achieved progress since we started our cooperation. We should find the best understanding between military and civilians, between public society and defenders. You are reforming your ministry during hostilities and our duty is to provide any advisory support, which will be helpful in your reforms,” Dayton was quoted as saying.

About Keith W. Dayton ---

Keith W. Dayton became director of the George C. Marshall Center in Garmisch, Germany, in 2010. He also serves concurrently as a senior U.S. defense adviser to Ukraine. His current service follows a four-decade career in the U. S. Army, retiring in 2010 with the rank of lieutenant-general.

Among his many assignments, Dayton was the U.S. security coordinator for Israel/ Palestinian Authority; the director of strategy, plans and policy, Army staff, the Pentagon; the director of operations for the Defense Intelligence Agency, and U.S. defense attache to Russia.

Dayton earned a B.A. from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, a B.A./M.A. from Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, and an M.A. from the University of Southern California in conjunction with the United States Army Russian Institute in Garmish, Germany. He is the recipient of numerous awards for his military service, including from the State Department and from the Canadian, German and Austrian Governments. He speaks Russian and German.

LINK: https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/keith-w-dayton-gets-senate-hearing-on-nomination-to-ukraine.html