Dame Melinda Simmons, the UK’s former ambassador to Ukraine and a longstanding member of Finchley Reform Synagogue, has been named Britain’s next ambassador to Poland.
The Foreign Office confirmed last Tuesday that Simmons will take up the role in August replacing Anna Clunes. The appointment follows a year of full-time Polish language training.
Simmons, who was born in London’s East End and raised in Ilford, served in Kyiv from 2019 to 2023, including Russia’s full-scale invasion. She was widely praised for her leadership and close engagement with Ukrainian civil society and Jewish heritage.
“Wherever I travelled I told my staff I wanted to visit the synagogue and the killing field,” she said in 2023. “I built a really tragic picture for myself.”
She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (DCMG) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to British foreign policy. After leaving Kyiv, she became an honorary professor at University College London’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies.
Simmons has held senior posts in the Foreign Office, Cabinet Office and Department for International Development, including roles in Pretoria, the Middle East, and the UK’s Conflict Department. She has led UK efforts on post-conflict recovery and combating sexual violence in war zones.
Fluent in multiple languages, including Ukrainian, French, German and Russian, she has also studied modern Hebrew.
Her final posting to Poland marks a return to frontline diplomacy in one of the UK’s key European partnerships. She is due to begin the role in August 2025.
