UK Foreign Office reshuffles senior roles for Ukraine crisis

Move triggers fears of further erosion of country's international development reputation

Senior diplomat Moazzam Malik has reportedly declined a role in the new set up. Jefta Images/Future Publishing via Getty Images

Live updates: follow the latest news on Russia-Ukraine

The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office will expand its senior team and increase the department’s focus on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

But that shake up has not been universally well received, one report says, with a senior diplomat and international development expert reported to have “declined” a post in the restructuring.

Moazzam Malik, who is the director-general for Africa and has played an important role in the UK’s response to the situation is Sudan, “didn’t agree with the new structure or how it was being done”, a Whitehall source told The Daily Telegraph.

He was formerly a senior figure at the Department for International Development before it merged with the Foreign Office in 2020 to become the presently FCDO. A practising Muslim, Mr Malik also served as UK ambassador to Indonesia.

The Telegraph reported that there were concerns that the shift in focus would have a detrimental impact on the UK’s development programme and work on global health and climate.

“The FCDO is expanding its senior team to deliver on the foreign secretary’s priorities and respond to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has altered the wider geopolitical landscape,” an FCDO representative told The National.

“International development remains a core FCDO priority — and we are boosting our senior team to tackle the major humanitarian implications of the Ukraine crisis and deliver the government’s wider objectives.”

A director general humanitarian and development role has been created, which will involve tackling the humanitarian implications of the crisis in Ukraine. Sir Tim Barrow, a former ambassador to Ukraine and Russia, will also be promoted to become the second most senior civil servant at the FCDO.

The government had been criticised last year for dropping aid spending from 0.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income — a decision that will be reversed by 2024.

And there are concerns that the departure of Mr Malik marks another blow to the UK’s international development engagement.

• 

  A woman cries near a building damaged by shelling in Kyiv as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues. EPA

• 

  A satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows the damage from a Russian strike on Lviv's international airport. AP

• 

  Destroyed cars hit by shelling in Kyiv. EPA

• 

  A woman stands in her home after her building was damaged by shelling in Kyiv. EPA

• 

  A pedestrian looks at a cloud of smoke rising after an explosion in Lviv. AP

• 

  General view of a street behind a barricade in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa. EPA

• 

  The UN Security Council meets on threats to international peace and security in New York. AFP

• 

  US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks with US troops at an army training range in Bulgaria. AP

• 

  Empty strollers are seen outside the Lviv city council building during an action to highlight the number of children killed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. AFP

• 

  Children play on the stage of the theatre of the Ukrainian House where a shelter for refugees has been installed in Przemysl, south-eastern Poland. AFP

• 

  Smoke is seen above buildings close to the airport in Lviv, Ukraine. Lviv's mayor said the airport was not hit, but an area nearby. Getty Images

• 

  Ukrainian firefighters try to extinguish a blaze at a warehouse after a bombing in Kyiv. AP Photo

• 

  President Volodymyr Zelenskiy presents flowers to Kateryna Vlasenko, 16 - who was injured as she fled with her family from the town of Vorzel - at a hospital in Kyiv. Reuters

• 

  Igor, a 40 year-old Ukranian soldier, embraces his wife in front of his military basement in the centre of Odesa. AFP

• 

  Ukrainian refugees arrive at the reception centre near Palanca Village, about 3 kilometres from the Moldova-Ukraine border. EPA

• 

  Broken windows after parts of a Russian missile, shot down by Ukrainian air defences, hit an apartment block in Kyiv. AP

• 

  People clear debris outside a medical centre damaged by the same Russian missile after it was intercepted. AP

• 

  A police officer looks through the window of a damaged flat in Kyiv. One person was killed and three injured when debris from a downed rocket hit an apartment in the Ukrainian capital. AFP

• 

  Firemen working in the rubble after extensive damage in Kyiv. AFP

• 

  Family members and comrades of Ivan Skrypny, who was killed in a rocket attack on a military base in Yavoriv, pay their last respects at his memorial service in Lviv, Ukraine. Reuters

• 

  A man feels the despair as his home was hit by debris from a downed rocket in Kyiv. Russian troops trying to encircle the capital have launched early morning strikes on the city for several successive days. AFP

• 

  UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed shakes hands with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a news conference following their talks in Moscow. Reuters

• 

  The Donetsk Regional Theatre of Drama, which was destroyed by an air strike during Russia's military onslaught in Mariupol, Ukraine. Reuters

• 

  A satellite image of the theatre before the bombing, with the word 'children' written in Russian in large white letters on the pavement in front of and behind the building. Reuters

• 

  A Ukrainian woman and her family in a taxi displaying the colours of the Ukrainian flag upon arriving in Madrid with a group of Spanish taxi drivers who drove to Poland to support the mass evacuation of refugees. Reuters

• 

  A sanitised train arrives in Kielce, Poland, carrying children with oncological diseases who fled Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Reuters

• 

  A man outside a damaged housing block after it was hit by debris from a downed rocket in Kyiv. AFP

• 

  A residential building damaged by a blast wave at the scene where debris from a downed rocket hit a nearby apartment block in Kyiv. AFP

• 

  Evacuees from Mariupol are seen upon arrival at the car park of a shopping centre on the outskirts of the city of Zaporizhzhia, which is now a registration centre for displaced people. AFP

• 

  Legislators applaud Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine's president, after an address via video link at the Bundestag in Berlin. Bloomberg

“Malik has been vital to the merger since day one, so his resignation is a real blow to the department and to our relationship with Africa,” said Stephanie Draper, chief executive at humanitarian network Bond.

“A second permanent undersecretary and a director general for development and humanitarian assistance is welcome, but the FCDO urgently needs a dedicated international development minister in the Cabinet to drive the UK’s development priorities.

“The FCDO needs real senior-level expertise to help prevent future crisis, rather than constantly trying to deal with the aftermath.”

Responding to reports of the FCDO reshuffle, Douglas Alexander, a former International Development Secretary, said the abolition of the Department for International Development “and the subsequent loss of capability is not just an act of wilful vandalism to the UK’s soft power and international influence”.

“Even more fundamentally, it vandalises our ability to assist the world’s most vulnerable people,” he said.

A former British ambassador to Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer applauded the move, calling for an end to carping over the new strategic focus in the country's diplomatic leadership.