BIO

Étienne de Poncins (born March 6, 1964) is a French diplomat, he was French ambassador to Ukraine from 2019 to 2022, then was appointed French ambassador to Poland, a position he assumed in the summer of 2023.

He graduated from Sciences Po Paris and is also a graduate of the École nationale d’administration (ENA). He also earned a bachelor’s degree from the Université Panthéon-Sorbonne. In 1988, at the age of 24, he did a six-month EAW internship in Bucharest, Romania, under the dictator Ceausescu.

Étienne de Poncins held the position of French ambassador in various posts, first in Bulgaria (2007-2010), then in Kenya (2010-2013) and simultaneously in Somalia.

He was France’s ambassador to Ukraine from 2019-2023, at the time of the Russian attack on Ukraine. He was one of the last senior diplomats to remain in Ukraine (after moving to Lviv) during the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Étienne de Poncins then became ambassador to Warsaw, starting in the summer of 2023.