{"record":{"aliases":["Yurii Shcherbak","Юрій Щербак"],"appointmentIds":["ukraine-513f130f112ec2"],"appointmentsDataset":"https://chanceries.org/diplomats.json","archivalSources":[],"canonicalUrl":"https://chanceries.org/diplopedia/people/yuriy-shcherbak-7932378c48/","countrySlug":"ukraine","entityId":"https://chanceries.org/diplopedia/people/yuriy-shcherbak-7932378c48/#person","eventIds":[],"expandedParagraphs":["Yuriy Shcherbak pursued medicine and literature before entering national politics. A graduate of Kyiv's medical institute, he spent nearly three decades at the city's institute of epidemiology and infectious diseases. His work included rabies prevention and responses to cholera outbreaks in Ukraine and Uzbekistan. He also wrote fiction, plays, screenplays, and accounts of the Chornobyl disaster.","During the last years of Soviet rule, Shcherbak served in the Soviet legislature and chaired Ukraine's Green Party. He then represented independent Ukraine in Israel, the United States, Mexico, and Canada. His diplomatic career overlapped with continuing writing on Ukraine's security and place in the world.","Shcherbak's later books range from political thrillers set in an imagined future to essays about war and national memory. Dead Memory: Voices and Cries uses a future Ukraine to explore the consequences of losing historical memory and independence. The official Shevchenko Prize committee includes him among its 2026 laureates."],"id":"ukraine:yuriy-shcherbak","identifiers":{},"legacyPersonIds":[],"legacyUrl":"https://chanceries.org/diplomat-7932378c48a1a02e1670.html","name":"Yuriy Shcherbak","notes":[],"paragraphSources":[["shcherbak-prize"],["shcherbak-prize"],["shcherbak-prize"]],"profileUrl":"diplomat-7932378c48a1a02e1670.html","relatedEvents":[{"basis":"reviewed-context","country":"Ukraine","date":"1994-12-05","description":"Ukraine received security assurances from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia in the Budapest Memorandum, alongside its accession to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a state without nuclear weapons. The memorandum was not a mutual defense treaty.","id":"budapest","note":"Shcherbak’s 1994–1998 posting provides period context; exact 1994 service boundaries are not inferred from year-only fields.","sourceUrls":["https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/PPP-1994-book2/PPP-1994-book2-doc-pg2146"],"title":"Nuclear disarmament and assurances","url":"Ukraine.html#history-budapest"}],"relatedPeople":[],"relationships":[],"researchStatus":"limited","reviewedOn":"2026-10-28","revision":"1b92d3186e2dfda1","sources":[{"accessedOn":"2026-10-28","date":null,"id":"shcherbak-prize","locator":"2026 laureate biography","publisher":"Committee for the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine","title":"Щербак Юрій Миколайович","type":"official-biography","url":"https://knpu.gov.ua/winners/shcherbak-iurij-mykolajovych/"},{"accessedOn":"","date":"","id":"mission-e289f8a46c0d2091dd0b","locator":"Accessed 25 October 2026.","publisher":"","title":"Roster","type":"Mission record","url":"https://usa.mfa.gov.ua/en/embassy/history-embassy-ukraine-usa"},{"accessedOn":"","date":"","id":"mission-22d7b4fcbc9599503fe9","locator":"Accessed 25 October 2026.","publisher":"","title":"Wiki Roster","type":"Mission record","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ambassadors_of_Ukraine_to_the_United_States"},{"accessedOn":"","date":"","id":"mission-a95916f91032ab6596ba","locator":"Accessed 25 October 2026.","publisher":"","title":"Yuriy Shcherbak — career record","type":"Mission record","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuriy_Shcherbak"},{"accessedOn":"","date":"","id":"mission-0bf7c6c14aebc78de915","locator":"","publisher":"","title":"Shevchenko National Prize Committee — Yuriy Shcherbak, author biography","type":"Mission record","url":"https://knpu.gov.ua/archive/knigi-chas-smertohristiv-mirazhi-2077-roku-chas-velikoi-gri-fantomi-2079-roku/"}],"topics":["epidemiology","Chornobyl","environmental politics","literature"]},"schemaVersion":1}